


the hills on fire for miles

by Lise



Series: Remember This Cold [64]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: (i mean at this point is any of this canon compliant), (the canon divergence was a while ago), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bisexual Brunnhilde | Valkyrie (Marvel), Grief/Mourning, Loki's tenuous sense of self preservation, M/M, Minor Jane Foster/Thor, Not Thor: Ragnarok (2017) Compliant, POV Steve Rogers, Sakaar (Marvel), Steve trying to hold it together, Thor (Marvel) Needs a Hug, Thor: Ragnarok (2017), it's the end of the world and everyone's invited!!!, references to dubious sexual encounters, there's a lot here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-03-15 03:56:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 42,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13605015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lise/pseuds/Lise
Summary: After Ultron, Thor went back to Asgard to tell them about Thanos. He hasn't been seen since.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So apparently a movie came out that changed some things? I heard something about that?
> 
> And here we are. It only took...four months? Less time than the Civil War fic did! And I feel like somehow this one ended up being even more complicated to wrangle. But it is here: the Ragnarok Fic. As always - I had to make a fair amount of changes in order to make things work with my canon. This meant cutting out some stuff, or not being able to give space to certain things that I might've liked to explore further. Always open to that happening in future installments: one never knows, and I do like leaving some of those doors slightly ajar. 
> 
> This got long. It finished out at around 42k, edging out _don't care if heaven won't take me back_ for second longest installment of this verse so far. That number also officially pushes Remember This Cold's AO3 word count over 700k. So...that's a landmark. In the interest of not having a wall of text 42,000 words long, this fic will be split into five chapters to be posted weekly on Wednesdays. The entire thing is complete, so I'll be able to stay on schedule.
> 
> A huge thank you to all of you who have cheered me on, who have read this verse from the beginning or just started, who clicked on this fic with no clue what I'm talking about, who have ever left a comment or a kudos or told your friends to read: you're amazing, and I'm incredibly grateful. Special shoutouts to [Lena](http://portraitoftheoddity.tumblr.com), who helps me out of my plotholes, and [Amelia](http://ameliarating.tumblr.com), who not only helps with the brainstorming but is there at the end to make the words all do the word things. All of them. It's a lot of words. 
> 
> If you like what I do here, you can find me [on Tumblr](http://veliseraptor.tumblr.com), blogging my feelings. A lot of feelings.

There was no way Steve could have known what was coming, but the feeling of dread had dogged him all day just the same. 

It came to fruition in early evening when one of the Dora Milaje approached him. “There’s a strange woman we caught at the border,” she said. “She calls herself ‘Sif Bolverksdottir’ and insists she needs to speak to Loki at once.” 

Steve jerked. “Sif?” He said. “You’re sure that’s what she said?” He couldn’t help but think of the last time Sif had showed up unexpectedly. 

Couldn’t help but think _it must be news about Asgard. But why wouldn’t Thor come?_

“Yes. Do you know her?” 

“I do,” Steve said, the dread deepening. “Can you bring her here? I should...go find Loki.” And Jane, he thought. If this was news about Thor, she should be there too. 

The woman - Steve didn’t recognize her - hesitated. “Can she be trusted?” 

“Yes,” Steve said. He might not know Sif well, but he remembered her conduct at the trial. “Thank you,” he added, as she turned to go. 

The Dora Milaje just inclined her head a fraction and left. Steve stared after her, chewing his lip. He was almost tempted to intercept Sif and find out what news she brought before bringing Loki in, but he couldn’t keep that kind of secret from Loki. No matter how much his stomach was doing flips. 

He found Loki on his own, sitting cross-legged on a balcony and apparently meditating. He knocked lightly on the doorframe. “Loki?” 

“Mmm?” He said, and Steve walked over slowly. 

“Sif’s here,” he said, after brief consideration, trying to find a decent way to say it that wouldn’t seem alarming. “She says she wants to talk to you.” 

He saw Loki freeze and heard him stop breathing for a moment. “Ah,” he said. “She said that, did she?” His voice sounded odd. Steve walked over closer to him. 

_It could be anything,_ Steve thought, but he couldn’t help but think of what Njörd had said about what had happened on Asgard. But...he could be wrong. Njörd had run away, and besides, even if it was as dire as he’d made it out to be...Thor was tough. Sif might just be here to ask for help, and Thor hadn’t come himself because he was busy defending his home. 

Yes, that must be it. _That has to be it._

Loki uncrossed his legs and stood, turning around. “Where is she?” He asked simply. 

“Not here yet,” Steve said. “Apparently she was stopped at Wakanda’s border, but she’s on her way here now.” 

Loki’s expression twitched. “And she didn’t just bowl her way through? That doesn’t sound right.” His voice was just a little too light to be convincing. 

“Do you know if Jane is around?” Steve asked. “I think she should...come too.” 

Steve saw Loki’s throat bob as he swallowed. “Yes,” he said. “Probably.” 

“She could just be here looking for extra help,” Steve said, though it sounded feeble even to him. 

“Yes,” Loki said. “That must be it.” 

His easy acquiescence to weak reassurance made Steve’s stomach sink even further. 

This wasn’t going to be good. It was just a question of how bad it was going to be. 

* * *

Steve debated informing everyone else and decided that until he knew exactly what was going on, it might be better to limit the audience. Which meant it was just him, Jane, and Loki in the room when Sif walked in. 

Steve’s breath caught. She looked - _beaten._ Not just literally - there were bruises and dirt on her face and her armor was battered and torn - but figuratively. Loki jerked back. 

“Sif,” he said, his voice sharp and tense. She turned her head to look at him and Loki sucked a breath through his teeth. “You look like...do you need healing?” 

Steve was surprised that Loki wasn’t demanding why she was here immediately, but then he understood: Loki was afraid to hear what she’d come to say. He knew as well as Steve did what the look on her face probably meant. 

Sif shook her head. “Not...not now. After I tell you…” She trailed off, her jaw working. “I am sorry.”

Loki’s shoulders rose and fell with his rapid breathing. Steve moved a little toward him. Jane shifted forward, biting her lip. “Sorry for what?” She asked in a small voice.

Sif took a deep breath. “It started with...a series of earthquakes. Unrest on the fringes. Thor came back and for a while things seemed to settle, but…” She walked away, looking out over the jungle. “No one seems to know where she came from.” 

Loki looked at Steve, then back at Sif. “‘She’?”

“She calls herself Hela,” Sif said. Her voice sounded distant, like she was making herself talk while trying to tune out the words. “She claims...she claimed Asgard was hers by right. And when we tried to fight…”

Steve’s stomach hurt. He could hear Loki breathing hard. “Say it,” he said. “Just - say it.”

“Asgard is broken,” Sif said quietly. “Her people are...scattered. I do not know where the others are, or who still lives. I believe...I believe Frigga and Odin escaped, but I do not know to where.”

Loki sucked in a breath, his face going ashy pale. Jane swayed, and Steve felt his stomach plummet. “Thor,” Loki said, before Steve could ask. His voice shook. “Where is Thor?” Sif looked down and Steve saw Loki shudder; he took a step forward, not quite reaching out. “ _Sif._ ”

“Hela took him,” Sif said, her voice ragged. “She…” Sif trailed off. “I failed,” she said, barely audible. 

Jane made a small squeaking noise. Steve felt sick. Loki...rocked back on his heels like he’d been shoved. 

“No,” he said after a moment, his voice harsh. “It’s not possible. Thor isn’t - he still lives.”

“Loki,” Steve said quietly, reaching out to take his shoulder. Loki didn’t pull away, but Steve could feel him - vibrating. 

“I _will not_ believe it,” he said. “You are wrong. You are mistaken. I would know. I would have felt it.” There was a raw edge in Loki’s voice. 

“I saw it all,” Sif said, her voice heavy. “I wish I could say...but it was clear. She shattered Mjolnir, Loki. And-”

“ _No,_ ” Loki interrupted. Steve glanced at Jane, who was sitting very still, blinking, tears dripping down her face. He wanted to offer her comfort, but with Loki like this...he didn’t know what Loki would do, and that scared him. “I do not care what you saw. It _is not possible._ Thor cannot - cannot be-” His voice strangled. 

Steve didn’t think Sif’s head could bow any further, but she looked like she wanted it to. A moment later she turned back and stepped toward Loki. “Do not offer me _comfort,_ ” Loki hissed. “Did you see his body, Sif? Did you feel for heartbeat, for breath? He is not dead. I will not accept it. I _refuse_ to accept it. I would feel if he were, I would have known the hour and the moment.”

Sif closed her eyes. “There was no body left,” she said. 

“Oh god,” Jane said quietly. “Please. Stop.”

“ _Stop it,_ ” Loki said, almost on top of her. His voice shook and he was breathing hard and fast. “It isn’t-” He turned to Steve. “It isn’t true. You know that, you _must_ know that. This is Thor. Tell me-” He cut off. Steve felt like a building had fallen on him. 

“I don’t want to believe it either,” he said. 

Loki staggered like Steve had slapped him across the face. “You are wrong,” he said again. “All of you are - _stop weeping,_ ” he snapped at Jane. “Are you so quick to give him up, too?” Jane flinched. 

“Don’t,” she said, voice rough but still firm. “You _don’t_ get to yell at me.”

Loki stared at her, then took a step back. “I need to go,” he said abruptly, turning on his heel. Steve caught his arm. 

“Go where?” He asked. 

“Asgard,” Loki snarled. “Where else? I need to see-”

“You can’t _,_ ” Sif said, his voice harsher, like she was holding back tears. She probably was. Steve still just felt numb. “There is no way back. Heimdall destroyed the sword that controls the Bifrost so that Hela cannot use it.”

“How did you get here?” Steve asked.

“He sent me,” Sif said after a moment, looking away. “Told me I had to go, to bring word of what had happened.” Steve could hear the shame in her voice. 

“There are other paths,” Loki said.

“Loki,” Steve said quietly, “you’ve said yourself that...you couldn’t reach Asgard. That the ways there were…” He trailed off.

Loki shuddered again. “Then I will _find another way_.” 

“Loki,” Steve said again, trying to keep his voice quiet but firm. “Don’t...do this. I know how it feels. When Bucky fell…”

“And you got him back, didn’t you?” Loki snapped. “And if you had not given him up for dead, perhaps he would never have been taken by HYDRA and made into their weapon!”

Steve let go of Loki’s arm, anger and hurt flaring up at once. He didn’t have a chance to find words, though, before Loki looked away. “No. I am...that is not fair. But you do not understand. Thor cannot be dead. He _cannot._ ”

“Why not?” Sif said, and now there was anger in her voice too, and bitterness. “You killed him once yourself.”

“ _Stop it,_ ” Jane said, her voice rising. “All of you! What good is this doing?” Both Sif and Loki turned to stare at her, and Jane seemed to wilt.

Sif looked down as well, though. “You are right,” she said. “This is not...a time to argue. Loki...I am sorry.”

The expression on Loki’s face was something awful. Raw and shattered, the face of someone whose world had just cracked in two. Steve wondered briefly if this was what Loki had looked like when he’d thought Steve was dead. 

A moment later the expression was gone, and so was Loki. Sif exclaimed and turned to look at Steve, who felt a pulse of panic. _He wouldn’t do anything stupid,_ he told himself. _He wouldn’t._ But-

“I need to go find him,” he said. “I’m sorry-” He directed that at both of them, but Sif shook her head. 

“Go,” she said, her expression pained. “I would not trust him alone.” Steve looked at Jane, who just looked stunned, a little shell-shocked. 

“I can’t believe it,” she said softly. “It doesn’t seem real. Doesn’t seem _right._ ”

Sif walked over and sat down next to Jane, only a little awkwardly. She nodded at Steve and he turned, hurrying out.

He went to his and Loki’s rooms first, but Loki wasn’t there. His heart started pounding, but then he heard a very quiet “out here,” from the balcony. 

Steve stepped outside and found Loki sitting with his legs dangling off the edge, staring out over the jungle. Swallowing hard, he sat down next to him. 

“Sif would not lie,” Loki said. His voice was very quiet. “But I cannot believe what she says.” 

Steve squeezed his eyes closed. “I know you don’t want to…”

“It isn’t that,” Loki said. “I _cannot._ It is not…” He inhaled, the sound shuddering unevenly. “It is as impossible as...believing that the sun will rise in the west tomorrow. Even when the Destroyer...when I struck Thor. When I killed him. It never felt...real. Some part of me always expected him to get up again. Thor is invincible. Eternal. Whether I have loved or hated him, he is a constant.”

Steve shifted closer to Loki, putting an arm around his shoulders and leaning into him. Could they have helped? He caught himself wondering. If they’d tried to reach Thor sooner, not assumed that everything would be all right because Thor could take care of himself…

Guilt threatened to swamp him. He pressed it back down. He knew he should try to encourage Loki toward acceptance, but… “If Thor was...if he was alive. Is there any way you could find him?”

Loki squeezed his eyes closed. “I have tried. Since this silence grew longer and longer - I have tried to reach his dreams, and failed. Thor has never been gifted in such things, and my range has always been limited. But I do not know what else to attempt.” 

Steve stared out at nothing. _Thor. God._ They’d been down here fighting each other while Thor’s planet burned. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly, and Loki’s breathing hitched.

“I can’t,” he whispered. “I can’t. There must be some way... _something._ ” His voice sounded raw, desperate. Steve’s chest hurt. He knew what Loki meant. It didn’t seem...possible. Thor was so strong, almost invincible. 

“Sif said he was _taken_ ,” Steve said. “Is it possible that this...Hela, that she might keep him alive?”

“I don’t know. All I know of her is...rumors, legends, that call her the Queen of the Dead. But Sif would not-” Loki choked on the words, then forced them out. “Sif would not accept...accept that Thor was fallen. Not easily.”

_Maybe she was still wrong,_ Steve wanted to say, _maybe it was a trick, like when I…_ It would be crueler to offer hope that was probably false, Steve knew. But it was hard to make himself do anything else. _He_ didn’t want to believe that Thor could be gone. Didn’t want to think he might’ve lost another friend and done nothing to stop it. 

Loki’s spine curved forward, his head pressed to his knees and his inhale shuddering. “Foolish, _foolish_ Thor,” he said. “No doubt he went into battle against Hela alone, certain of his victory-” 

His voice broke.

“Loki,” Steve said, but he was at a loss for words. “Come here,” he said instead. Loki turned and almost crawled into Steve’s arms, pressing his face into his shoulder. Steve wrapped his arms around him tightly, lowering his head to breathe in the smell of Loki’s hair, his eyes burning. “I’m sorry,” he said again, meaningless, stupid, inadequate words. Loki trembled. 

“Not Thor,” he said. “It was never supposed to be Thor. Tell me _why…_ ”

_I don’t know,_ Steve thought. _I’ve never known. People die and it never makes a damn lick of sense._ He just held on, unable to keep the shuddering tears from starting. 

Loki didn’t cry. Numb, Steve thought. 

The worst would come later.

* * *

Steve called Bucky over after Loki fell asleep, apparently exhausted. “Thor’s dead,” he said heavily. “That’s what the Asgardian woman, Sif, came to say. Asgard’s gone. Apparently Hela, who at least calls herself the Goddess of Death, attacked, and Thor…”

“Shit,” Bucky said after a moment. “Not that I...hardly knew him. But...shit.” He paused, glancing toward the door down the hall. “You got Loki?”

“Yeah,” Steve said. “He’s sleeping right now. I don’t know that...he’s really absorbed it.”

Bucky studied him. “How about you?”

Steve sighed and sank down onto the couch, rubbing his face with his hands. “I don’t know that I’ve really absorbed it either,” he said honestly. 

“Should we be ready for trouble coming our way?” 

“I don’t know,” Steve said, and then amended, “probably.” He squeezed his eyes closed. “This is…”

“The last thing we needed right now? True,” Bucky said. Steve gave him a tired look, and Bucky made a face. “I know. Do you think he’s going to do something stupid?” 

Steve didn’t have to ask who Bucky meant by ‘he.’ “I hope not.” He paused. “Still, I don’t want to...the team should know.” 

“And you don’t want to leave,” Bucky said. “Right. I’ll go tell Sam, he can take care of it.” He cocked his head to the side. “How are you really doing?” 

Steve found a weak smile. “I’ve been worse.”

“That’s not much of an endorsement.”

“I know.” Steve looked down at his hands. “I can’t help but feel like we should have tried to find out what happened sooner. Tried to reach Thor. I just assumed he’d be fine, and even after the news came out that there was trouble...I didn’t want to accept it. And we were so busy with...everything else that was happening…”

“Hey,” Bucky said roughly. “There you go again. Blaming yourself for everything.” 

Steve just shook his head and stared into the distance. He didn’t know how he was supposed to handle this. How he was supposed to handle Loki, who was a wreck, or how he was supposed to handle the fact that Thor had died and he hadn’t been there, none of them had been, they’d let their teammate down. 

“Steve?” Bucky said, sounding uncertain. 

“Go ahead,” he said wearily. “Go tell Sam. Everyone...everyone should know. They need to know. Maybe...maybe find Sif too. She’ll be able to explain better.” 

Bucky left after another long moment and Steve dropped his head forward and rubbed his eyes. He heard the door open and looked up; Loki came out, his hair a tangled and curling mess, moving like he hurt inside. Steve knew how that felt and ached with the urge to _do_ something even though he knew there was nothing he could do. 

“James was here?” Loki asked. Steve nodded. 

“Yeah. He asked about you.” 

“Oh.” Loki inhaled slowly and then exhaled just as slowly. “I should…” He trailed off and looked at Steve, helpless. Steve looked back at him, hurting. Angry, unfairly, and he didn’t know for sure who he was angry at. This Hela would make sense, but it felt like it was more at himself. Maybe even at Thor, and that just made him feel rotten all the way through. 

“No one expects you to do anything,” he said. “But maybe you should think about...not being alone. About...being with other people, not just me.” Even as he said it Steve felt like a hypocrite, and Loki’s tired look in his direction seemed to accuse as much. 

“Sif? Or Doctor Foster?” Loki shook his head slightly. “We are not...friends.” 

_Grief brings people together._ It sounded like a platitude even in his head. “They might still appreciate the company.” 

“I am not particularly good company,” Loki said, and Steve thought it was meant to be dry, or wry, but it just sounded tired. 

“I don’t think anyone expects you to be a social butterfly.”

Loki sank down onto the couch. “How did you bear it?” He asked. 

“Bear what?” 

Loki shook his head. “Any of it. Losing James. Waking and learning that you’d lost everything else.”

There was a lump in Steve’s throat. _A lot of times I didn’t._ “I don’t know,” he said honestly. “I wish...I wish I had a better answer.” He sat down next to Loki and Loki curled up on the couch, putting his head on Steve’s leg. 

“I don’t know what to do,” he said. 

“You don’t have to do anything,” Steve told him. “Just…” It was hard to talk past the lump blocking his throat. He combed his fingers through Loki’s hair. “Just stay here with me. Like this, if you want. Or...whatever you want.” 

“Steve,” Loki said in a small voice, “Thank you. For staying with me.”

“For - of course,” Steve said. “Of _course_ I’m…” _Thank you for staying with_ me, he thought. _You are going to stay, aren’t you, you’re not going to do something stupid because you’re hurting?_

“I love you,” Loki said, even smaller. Steve looked down at him, curled up with his eyes closed, one of his hands curled over Steve’s leg. 

“I love you too,” Steve said. His voice sounded weak and cracked, but Loki sighed unsteadily out like he’d somehow needed to hear it. 

* * *

Maybe an hour went by before there was a knock on the door. Loki had dozed off but he startled upwards. “Thor?” He said blurrily, and Steve felt a little like he’d been punched. Loki shook himself a moment after, though, and called, “who is it?” 

“Me,” said Sif’s voice, recognizable through the door. Loki’s expression spasmed oddly.

“The door is unlocked,” Loki said after a moment, and Steve relaxed, relieved. Sif let herself inside. She’d cleaned up and removed her armor, and she looked at Steve first. 

“Hey,” Steve said. 

“I...told your other friends what I told you,” she said, voice strained and halting. “I wished to…” She looked at Loki, who was not quite looking at her, and seemed to falter. 

“I do not hold you responsible,” Loki said suddenly, his voice strange and distant. “Is that what you need me to say, Lady Sif? I do not know why you would feel you need _my_ absolution, but if that is what you seek, you have it.”

“Loki-” Sif broke off, the look she gave Steve almost helpless. “I wanted to...see how you fared. Whatever past wrongs lie between us, we were friends once, and Thor…”

Steve saw a shudder go through Loki’s body. “Do not ask me how I fare,” he said. “I do not wish to start screaming.” He stood up, though, and took a half step toward her. “Sif…”

She moved first to embrace him, as she had on the bridge after the trial. She must know, Steve thought, that Loki never would. Sif said nothing.

“I do not have the mead, nor the feast, to make a proper memorial,” Loki said at length, his voice unsteady and muffled. 

“There would never be enough of either to make it fitting for him,” Sif said. 

Loki pulled back first and returned to sit next to Steve. Sif sat down as well, both of them quiet. 

Sam wandered in a little later and sat down without asking permission. He held up a bottle. “Anyone want some of this brandy? I know it won’t do anything for the three of you but I figured it might be nice anyway.” To Sif, he said, “I didn’t introduce myself earlier. I’m Sam. I wish we were meeting under better circumstances.” 

Sif’s smile was wan. “Well met. I wish the same.” 

“I didn’t know Thor well,” Sam said, “but even just meeting him briefly...he made a hell of an impression. I’m sorry.” He looked at Loki, whose eyes were cast down, holding still like he was afraid to move. 

“The first time I met him he flattened a forest,” Steve said. “Well - to be fair, it was the impact of Mjolnir meeting the shield, but...I wouldn’t have thought he’d become one of my best friends then.” _I should have been there. We should have been there to help._

“So this is where the wake is, huh?” Clint was hovering in the doorway, his eyes flickering toward Loki and then away. He came in slowly, but didn’t sit down. “I...Jesus. Thor. I kind of thought he was invincible.” 

“So did I,” Loki said, voice quiet enough that Steve wondered if it was meant to be heard. 

“Well, yeah,” Clint said after a moment. “Older brothers, right? They’re supposed to live forever.” He swallowed hard. “It’s bullshit. It’s really...it’s just bullshit.” 

Loki stuttered a humorless laugh. “A succinct and pithy way of putting it. But not inaccurate for that.” He leaned into Steve, who put an arm around his shoulders. 

Jane and Wanda came in next, Jane’s eyes red and her face blotchy. Pietro trailed in after them. Wanda made a beeline for Loki and held out her arms; he stared up at her for a moment before standing and hugging her. She murmured something to him in Sokovian, and Steve saw him shiver slightly.

“Thank you,” he said quietly. Wanda stepped back and turned to Steve, offering him the same.

“I wish I could do more,” she said quietly. “I know that nothing really makes it better. But if anything can help…” 

“You’re doing it,” Steve told her. He looked at Jane, who was hanging back and looking uncertain. “Sit down,” he told her. “Sam brought brandy, if you want any.” 

“Yes, please,” she said. “That...yeah, I think that’d be good.” 

Sam got up to pour. Jane looked at Loki and swallowed. 

“Loki,” she said awkwardly. “I’m...I know we’re not exactly...but I’m here if you want.” 

Loki looked up, his expression achingly blank, like there wasn’t really room for feeling. Steve’s stomach clenched. “You have a good heart, Jane Foster,” he said finally. “I never should have doubted you were worthy of Thor’s.” 

Jane made a little hiccuping noise and started crying again. Wanda steered her over to one of the chairs. Sif looked lost, like she’d suddenly found herself in a world she didn’t recognize, and Clint looked like someone had kicked him in the stomach. 

Bucky wandered in a little later and sat down on Loki’s other side, tense and seeming almost defensive, like he thought someone might attack Loki if he weren’t there.

Steve had had a lot of friends die, but he’d never been to a proper wake. There hadn’t really been money to have one for his mother, and he couldn’t remember much of the Commandos’ for Bucky. He hadn’t even made it to Peggy’s. He didn’t think they were supposed to be like this: quiet, awkward, a group of people none of whom knew what to do or what they were supposed to say. They were all acquainted with death, but it was like Clint had said: Thor was supposed to be invincible, even though none of them really were. 

Loki barely seemed to be present at all, most of the time. 

Jane got drunk and ended up crying on Sif’s shoulder. Clint didn’t touch the alcohol at all, which was a bad sign about his mood. Wanda hovered anxiously and unhappily. The whole thing was just...it hurt. 

Eventually they started to bleed out, leaving one or two at a time. Jane paused, looking like she was about to reach out to Loki, and then left without saying anything. Sif, Bucky, and Sam were the last ones there. 

“We need to find those who are left,” Sif said. “The survivors...Odin, and Frigga. We need to-” 

“Don’t,” Loki said dully. Sif stiffened. 

“What do you mean?” 

“I said, ‘don’t,’” Loki said. “Asgard has taken everything from me. And now it has taken Thor, because it would accept nothing less than his life in its defense. I have no means of reaching Odin or Frigga, and even if I could - what help would I be, alone? I am an outcast. An exile. I am not Asgard’s savior.” He bent his head forward. “Throw away your life if you wish. But let me grieve, and guard what is left that I love.” 

Sif stood up, jerkily. “You have a responsibility,” she said, her voice tight with what Steve recognized as anguish. 

“Hey,” Bucky said, leaning forward. “That’s not up to you.” 

“Nor you,” Sif snapped back. “You are not Aesir-”

“Nor am I,” Loki said.

Sif’s nostrils flared and she turned to Steve. “You are an honorable man. Tell him that he _must_ -” 

“I’m not going to make Loki’s choices for him,” Steve said, trying to keep his voice level, not to get angry. Sif had just watched her dearest friend die and her home burn. He couldn’t fault her for her reactions. “But even if I was...I don’t think now’s the time.” 

Sif opened her mouth, then snapped it shut. “There isn’t any other,” she said tightly. “If you wait - if you turn your back on your people, and they _are_ yours whatever your blood may be - there will be nothing of them left to save.”

She turned and stormed out. Bucky snorted. 

“Nice woman,” he said a little caustically. Sam was frowning. 

“She has a point, though,” he said. “Thor gave up his life trying to save these people. We should at least try to help. Shouldn’t we?” 

Loki shook his head. “We have no way of reaching them. And if we did...it would only open a door for this carnage to reach your Realm as well.” He closed his eyes. “If all Asgard could not stop it...I will not risk you.” 

“That isn’t just your choice to make,” Sam said, though gently. A ripple went through Loki’s body. 

“I am asking you to let me make it.” Sam said nothing, and Loki’s voice turned raw. “Steve, _please._ ”

“We won’t make any decisions now,” Steve said. Loki lurched to his feet and went to the windows. 

“Sam, James,” he said, voice unsteady. “Would you…”

“Yeah,” Sam said after a moment. “We’ll go.” 

“Like hell,” Bucky said, but Sam gave him a quelling look and he made a face, standing up. He turned to Steve and dragged him into a hug. “You need someone to take Loki-sitting shifts,” he said quietly, “I can do that. You need...something else...I’m around.” 

“Thanks,” Steve said, his eyes starting to burn again. He swallowed hard. Bucky let go and went over to Loki; Steve turned to Sam. 

“Don’t forget to take care of yourself,” Sam said. “You already look exhausted.” 

Steve tried for a wan smile. “Don’t worry about me.” 

“Fat chance of that.” Sam hugged him too, then moved over toward the door. “Come on, Barnes. We’ll come back later.” 

“Yeah,” Bucky said, his eyes intent on Loki’s back as he moved away. “We sure will.” 

Steve waited until the door closed to get up and go over to Loki. 

“Do you think she’s right?” Loki said. “That I should…”

“I don’t think that’s what you need to be thinking about right now.” 

“It might be better than wondering if Thor suffered before he died,” Loki said, his voice quiet and distant. “Than wondering if Frigga is still alive, and where she is. Than thinking about the seven or eight different theories of resurrection I read, each one warning of a terrible price.”

Steve tried to swallow the lump in his throat. “Loki…”

Loki turned and faced him. “Steve,” he said, and his eyes were damp. Steve reached for him and Loki stumbled forward, almost crashing into him. His shoulders were shaking like he was trying to hold something back, and Steve tightened his arms around him like he could hold him together. 

“Hey,” he said. “I got you.” 

He almost felt something crack. Loki’s inhale shook; his exhale was a sob, and then he was weeping into Steve’s shoulder with something approaching desperation, like he’d just been waiting for permission. 

Steve closed his eyes and rested his head against Loki’s and let his own tears fall.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Valentine's Day! Here's a second chapter. :D Thank you all so much for your enthusiastic response to the first one! 
> 
> Not a whole lot of notes to make this week (after the wall of text that was last week's notes). This is where things really get going and the plot kicks in. (Also, funny story: I've already written one and a half fics that are sort of "epilogues" to this one. So there's going to be plenty of RTC content in your future, is what I'm saying.)
> 
> Enjoy!

It took a long time for Loki to cry himself out, but he let Steve coax him into a shower and then into bed without argument. Steve lay next to him, awake, for a long time, thinking about the future. 

He slipped finally into uneasy sleep close to dawn, only to wake up what felt like seconds later to someone shaking him violently. Steve came flailing out of sleep, automatically starting to lash out. He only just managed to stop when he registered Loki looking down at him, eyes wide and almost frantic. “Steve,” he was saying, breathless. “Wake up.”

“What?” Steve said, jarred completely awake with alarm jangling along his nerves. “What’s happening, is there an attack-”

“It’s Odin,” Loki said. “I don’t know how, but - he reached me. In my dreams. He’s in Norway, we need to go-”

“Wait,” Steve gasped, “wait, wait, what do you mean?”

“Odin,” Loki said. “Contacted me. In my mind. If he’s alive-” Steve could hear the naked desperation in Loki’s voice. It reminded him of the thoughts that had raced through his thoughts seventy years ago: _maybe he survived, miracles happen sometimes, I should go back, I need to go back._

“Loki,” he made himself say. “Are you sure that...I thought no one could reach you that way. Maybe...maybe it was…”

“It wasn’t a dream,” Loki said, his voice suddenly sharp. “And most cannot, but Odin, from close proximity - _Steve._ I need to go, I need to find out what happened, what he knows, maybe, maybe-”

He broke off, almost panting. His expression was frantic, wild. 

“All right,” Steve said, “all right, let me get dressed-”

Loki hissed. “Be fast,” he said, unusually harsh. “I don’t know how much time there is.”

Steve tried to get dressed as fast as he could, but Loki paced back and forth like it was taking him hours. The moment he finished pulling his last shoe on, Loki grabbed his arm and the world inverted. 

Wind blasted in Steve’s face. The sun was just coming up, but it was still mostly dark, and it was bitter cold enough to make Steve shiver. Loki summoned one of his green lights and strode forward, gripping Steve’s arm tightly enough to hurt.

“Odin!” He called. “All-Father!”

Nothing. “ _Odin!_ ” Loki shouted more loudly. “Pay attention, you old fool, you summoned me here so-”

“I am here.” 

Steve recognized Odin’s voice, though it sounded...wrong. Strangely feeble; strained. Loki’s breath audibly caught and the light hovering by his shoulder brightened.

It was indeed Odin. He sat on the edge of the cliffs, and when he turned his head his skin looked grey and his face gaunt, like he’d aged a decade since Steve had seen him last. He felt Loki fall still.

“Odin,” Loki said, his voice flat though Steve could hear the faint tremor in it. “Tell me what you called me for.” 

Odin sighed, standing. He looked as though the effort pained him. “I called you,” he said. “My son. My boy.” Loki twitched violently. “You look well,” Odin said. “Not so skinny. Life on this Realm suits you.”

Loki stiffened. “Life on any Realm where you are not suits me. Do not tell me you summoned me so that you could speak empty platitudes. Where is Frigga, where is _Thor-_ ” 

“I do not know.”

Loki’s inhale shuddered. “But you are here,” he said. “ _You_ are here, of course it would be you, of course you would call me now when there is _no one else,_ you ignore me, discard me, but _now_ you come-”

“Loki,” Steve said lowly. Odin’s head bowed forward. 

“I did not think you would thank me for invading the home you found,” he said. “Perhaps I have been a coward. But whatever anger you bear me, whatever hatred...I wanted to see you once more.”

“Once-” Loki hissed. “Stop wasting time. Tell me what happened, Sif said Asgard was destroyed, that some woman called Hela-”

“Yes,” Odin said. “She’s come back. The old bonds are weakening. I couldn’t hold her off...Frigga, my love, I am sorry. This is my fault.” 

Loki’s jaw worked and Steve stepped forward. “What’s your fault?” He asked. 

“Her rage,” Odin said. “Her hate.” 

“This tells me nothing,” Loki snapped. “You babble of nothing and your wife, your son, are-”

“Loki, please,” Odin said, and Steve’s heart stopped at the sound of his voice. _No,_ he thought, but Odin went on. “No more. I did not mean to come here, but...the Norns must have guided me to you. To say goodbye, so that the last words we had would not be those of a king’s sentence, but a father’s love.” 

Steve could see Loki’s shoulders rising and falling rapidly. He felt like he was watching a train coming down the tracks, Loki squarely in its path, and maybe he could jump in front of it but it wouldn’t make a damn lick of difference. 

“What do you mean,” Loki said, voice reedy. Odin’s head turned slowly.

“I am dying,” he said, and the train hit. 

Loki made a small sound in the back of his throat. Steve reached out to touch his shoulder and found that he was shaking. 

“I am dying,” Odin said again. “And I wanted to say that...you are still my son. You have always been my son. And I am proud of you.”

“No,” Loki said. He pulled away from Steve’s hand, striding over to Odin and grabbing his arm. “You don’t get to - you do not get to come here only to leave, speak a few shallow words as though that mends everything, damn you, old man-”

Steve saw the sparking of magic at Loki’s fingertips. Odin took Loki’s hand and pulled it away. “There is nothing you can do.”

Loki’s chest heaved. His jaw clenched. “Do not tell me what I can and cannot do.”

Odin smiled faintly. He was still holding Loki’s hand. “Thor told me,” he said. “What...happened to you.” Loki moved like he was about to pull away, but didn’t. “I did not know.”

Loki jerked his head to the side. “It doesn’t matter-”

“Does it not?” Odin’s gaze was tired, but steady. “Had I known...please believe I would not have left you there.” Steve saw Loki flinch, and his throat closed. Odin let go of Loki’s wrist, and reached out to clasp the back of his neck. “There is so much I wish now I could undo.”

Loki looked frozen, his eyes wide. “Odin,” he said, and then, softer, “father-”

“I am sorry,” he said, “that there is not more time. Your mother...give your mother my love.”

And he - dissolved. That was the only word Steve had for it - it was like Odin just fell apart into golden sparks that hung for a moment in the air and then blew away. “No,” Loki said, something raw and furious in his voice, the earliest streaks of light starting to touch land. “No, _no-_ ” 

First Thor, Steve thought bleakly, and now Odin. Just a moment with the man who’d defined so much of Loki’s life, who offered Loki what he most wanted to hear and then left, and all Steve could do was stand here and watch, _useless-_

“Ah,” said a smooth, unfamiliar voice. “So this is where the old fool ran to spend his last days.” 

Steve and Loki both turned. The woman standing in front of them was just barely illuminated by the early dawn light, but it was enough: she was hopelessly striking, lips quirked in a very faint and unpleasant smile, her eyes glittering coldly, looking from Steve to Loki. 

“And you,” she said to him, “must be the youngest whelp. The failure. Which makes you…” she looked at Steve. “What _does_ that make you?” 

Before Steve could reply, Loki snarled something and green light began to coalesce into a cage around the woman - Hela, Steve realized. She must be Hela. She flicked her wrist and a sword appeared, sweeping through Loki’s magic like it was air. 

“Oh,” she said, sounding almost amused. “Now that’s interesting.” 

“I’ll kill you,” Loki snarled, barely articulate. “I’ll rip out your beating heart-” 

“Is that any way to speak to your rightful queen?” She extended her sword in Loki’s direction. “One chance. Kneel, or I will kill you - and your mortal - and see if that brings that flax-haired fool out of whatever hole he’s scurried into.”

Steve’s heart stuttered and he saw Loki freeze, his lips shaping the word _Thor_. 

“Time’s up,” Hela said, and took a step forward. 

Loki moved, grabbing Steve with one hand. He spoke three words, one after another, and Steve felt the world _ring_ like a bell. He cried out in alarm, grabbing onto Loki, and they were standing in one of the outdoor gardens in Wakanda. 

“What - where is she, is she here, we need to wake the others-” Steve’s head was spinning, but he still knew what was important. 

“She’s not here,” Loki said, already moving, almost dragging Steve after him. “Not anymore. I sent her away. Somehow she followed Odin’s trail here-” His voice hitched, but only for a moment, and then it was clear again. “--but I banished her, and she can’t follow - can’t follow him anywhere, now.” 

“Banished her?” Steve said blankly. “To where?” 

“Wherever she came from. That was - that was all I could do. That area will be a magical dead zone for a century - it’ll probably cause some trouble for your electronics, too - but she’s gone. At least for now.” Steve found his footing and caught up with Loki so he wasn’t being pulled along. “We need to wake Foster, now. And Sif, we need to leave as soon as possible-”

“ _Leave?_ ” Steve stopped dead. “What are you talking about? If Earth is in danger-”

Loki turned, and if before he’d looked wild, frantic, now he was as focused as a knife, honed to a point and almost vibrating. “You heard her,” he said. “Steve, _you heard her._ Thor’s _alive._ ”

He had heard her. _Bring that flax-haired fool out of whatever hole he’s scurried into._ So whatever Sif had seen - Thor might be dead. He might have survived. Hela seemed to think so. 

Slow hope started to bloom in Steve’s chest. _Thor’s alive. I knew it, I knew he couldn’t really be gone,_ part of him thought, almost exultant, but he fought against it. But even if she hadn’t killed him - he might have been mortally wounded. He could still be…

“Loki, slow down,” he said, caught between hope and fear. “We can’t assume - we can’t just go jumping into anything. We need to think this through.” 

Loki hissed. “No,” he said, “we need to _save Thor._ ”

“We don’t even know where he is!” Steve said. Loki took several harsh, deep breaths, and then smiled. It wasn’t exactly a pleasant expression: it looked sharp, and desperate, and his eyes blazed almost feverishly. Steve held his ground and did not take a step back, even if some instinct buzzed a warning. 

“We’ll find out,” he said, low and hard. “We’ll find him, Steve. We’ll get him back. And then, somehow, we will find a way to tear this _Hela_ to shreds.”

Steve stood stock still, the hairs on the back of his neck prickling. The air felt charged, like Loki was oozing magic from his pores, and the expression on his face was almost feral, savage. It reminded Steve eerily of the way he’d looked back before all this had started. Just a half step away from exploding. 

But that wasn’t Loki anymore, Steve reminded himself. That hadn’t been Loki for a long time. He might be angry, grieving, desperate. But the difference now was what he did with it. If they could really find Thor...bring him back alive…

“Okay,” Steve said. “Let’s go.”

* * *

Loki moved like he was going to run over anyone in their way. Steve hurried to keep up with him.

“Do you know where Jane is?” Steve asked. “Is she even still here?”

“She won’t have left,” Loki said tersely. “I know where she stays when she is visiting Wanda.” Steve blinked a little, surprised that Loki would, though he supposed he shouldn’t be. Loki hoarded information in much the same way Natasha did, though he collected it seemingly out of the sheer desire to know things. Loki came to an abrupt halt and knocked on the door, hard. 

“Doctor Foster,” he said, his voice harsh. “Are you there?”

“Loki?” Jane sounded surprised, and a moment later she came to the door, her face blotchy even as she scrubbed at her eyes. She took one look at his face and her eyes widened. “What is it? What happened?” 

“How close are you to building a Bifrost?” 

Jane blinked. “I - what?”

“I said-” 

“Loki,” Steve interrupted. “We should probably _explain._ ” He turned to Jane. “It looks like - Thor might be alive.” 

He heard quick footsteps from within and Sif almost threw the door open. “ _What_ did you say?” She demanded. 

“Thor is alive,” Loki said, almost snapped, and Steve noted the adjustment and felt his heart lurch nervously. “Hela said so.” 

Sif jerked, groping for her sword. “Hela? She is _here?_ ” 

“Thor’s alive?” Jane said, in a small voice. 

Loki ignored her. “She isn’t anymore. I banished her back where she came from - Asgard, presumably - but not before she referenced Thor being _in hiding._ Not dead. Which means she didn’t kill him.”

Sif almost swayed. “I was sure I saw…”

“You were _wrong._ ” Loki sounded almost viciously satisfied.

“But you don’t know,” Jane said. “You don’t know for certain, where he is, or if he’s...he could be hurt. He could have _been_ hurt.” 

“Which is why we need to _get to him._ ” 

“Maybe we should go inside,” Steve suggested. “Sit down and talk about what we’re going to do.” 

Loki was almost vibrating. Sif still looked vaguely sick. “I shouldn’t have left,” she said. “I should have tried harder-”

Jane backed up. “You’re right,” she said to Steve. “Both of you - come in. What exactly did Hela say?” 

Loki wavered like he was considering just dragging Jane out to get to work, but Steve gave him a little nudge and he went inside, though he just started pacing back and forth. “Odin called me,” he said abruptly, after a moment. Sif jerked again. “Steve and I went - to Norway.”

“Odin was here?” Sif said. “On Midgard?” 

“Yes,” Loki said tersely. Steve saw him twitch and wanted to reach for him. He suspected that part of Loki’s laser focus wasn’t just about Thor. He was trying to avoid thinking about the fact that his father was dead. 

“Why didn’t you bring him back with you?” Sif asked, her voice sharp. Loki’s head jerked to the side and his jaw tightened. Sif took a step toward him. “Whatever hatred you bear the All-Father, Loki, if you left him to Hela’s mercies-”

“I did not,” Loki said, his voice brittle. 

“Then why-”

“He died,” Steve said, so Loki didn’t have to. “He was...weak, when we got there. Only a few minutes later, he died.” 

Sif’s eyes widened and her mouth opened, then closed. She turned toward Loki, who wasn’t looking at her.

“All of this is moot,” Loki said. “Answer the question, Doctor Foster. How close are you to creating a functional Bifrost?” 

Jane swallowed. “Not...not very close. Professor Adeyemi’s work has helped a lot, but so much of it is still theoretical, we haven’t actually _built_ anything - I don’t understand. Even if we had...we have no idea where Thor _is._ ”

“There is a possibility we could find out.” Loki’s hand opened and closed. “With help from Wanda. If you can create a working Bifrost - and I _may_ be able to help - then using Wanda’s power I could reach far enough to find Thor, and, since we have no existing anchor point for the bridge, use his location as one.”

Steve stared at Loki. It sounded...insane. “I thought you said you couldn’t reach him,” Steve said. “If with Wanda you could…” Loki hesitated, just long enough. Steve tensed. “There’s a risk, isn’t there?” He didn’t answer. “How serious?”

Loki looked away. “It wouldn’t kill me.” 

“And what if whatever’s at the other end is dangerous? What about getting back?” Steve demanded. “You’re just going to throw yourself into the unknown weakened and vulnerable?” 

“I wouldn’t be alone,” Loki said. 

“ _That’s_ a relief,” Steve said hotly.

“You can draw strength from someone else, can’t you?” Sif said abruptly. “Even someone without magic?”

Loki glanced at her. “I...could, yes. Are you offering?” The question sounded dry, but Sif lifted her chin.

“Of course I am.”

“Even though it is me,” Loki said. Sif scowled.

“Stop that,” she said. “Now is not the time for petty squabbles, even if I still _wanted_ to, which I don’t. Would it help?”

“Yes,” Loki said after a moment. “Diffused across two people-”

“Three,” Steve said firmly. Loki gave him a sharp look, and Steve met his eyes levelly. “If you’re going to take that risk, then it’d better be something you’re willing to let me help with.”

Loki’s lips twisted a little, but after a moment he jerked his head in a nod. “Fine.”

“Wait,” Jane said. “Wait - I want to know what you mean when you say you might be able to help build a Bifrost. Do you mean you could actually - can you actually _do_ that?” 

“Theoretically,” Loki said after a moment. 

“Could you have done that _all along?_ ”

Loki made a noise in the back of his throat. “I don’t think that is terribly important right now.” 

“ _I_ think-” Jane cut off with a huff. “All right, _fine._ You’re right. And if you _can_ make it work, and explain to me what you did - but that can wait. And getting to Thor can’t.” 

Loki jerked his head in a nod. “I can bring your research here.”

“I’ll need Professor Adeyemi’s help-”

“Her too, then.” Loki sounded impatient. He raised a hand and Steve reached out to catch him. 

“Hold on,” he said. “Can I talk with you for a second? Alone?” 

Loki hesitated, looking from Steve to Jane and then back at Steve. “Quickly,” he said, and then added, more gently, “please.” 

Steve pulled Loki back into the hallway and closed the door. “You’re moving fast,” he said slowly. 

“We need to,” Loki said. “Foster is right. Anything could be happening to Thor - he might have been wounded. He probably is in danger. Every moment wasted-”

“I know,” Steve said. “I know. I’m just - concerned that you’re being reckless.” He didn’t want to say: _setting yourself up for failure._ Loki was acting - frenetic, almost manic. If he crashed from that...it’d been bad enough before this. It could be even worse. 

Loki gave him an incredulous look. “Are you accusing _me_ of recklessness? You wouldn’t hold back. If you knew it was a matter of time, to save someone’s life-”

Steve felt a pang. _I did,_ he thought guiltily, remembering how he’d waited when Doom had Loki, but then - then acting wouldn’t just have put himself in danger. Here… “No,” he said reluctantly. “I know...I know I would. But just because _I_ might be reckless doesn’t mean _you_ should be.” 

Loki stared at him for a long moment, but finally he glanced away and sighed, his shoulders relaxing a fraction. “I know,” he said. “But I am not willing to wait.” He smiled crookedly, though it was clearly strained. “With Thor not here, someone has to take up the role.”

“I don’t know that that’s how that works,” Steve said. He reached out to take Loki’s face in his hands. “This thing you want to do. With Jane’s proto-Bifrost. What are the chances it’s going to hurt you?” 

“Low,” Loki said, after a brief pause. “With both you and Sif assisting me.”

“Would it be better if more people did? Because I’m sure others would offer.” 

Loki shook his head. “No. The only other one here strong enough to take it would be James, and using three would just spread my attention too thin. It’ll be enough cooperating with Wanda and Doctor Foster’s machine without adding another variable in the mix.” 

“All right.” Steve breathed in, and breathed out slowly. “All right. I trust you.” He leaned back on his heels. “While you get what Jane needs - I’ll go talk to Wanda. And explain to everyone else what’s going on. They need to be kept updated.”

Loki nodded. For a moment something slipped across his expression, something young and vulnerable and almost scared, and then he almost lunged forward to kiss Steve. “Tell me we’ll find him,” he said when he pulled away. Steve swallowed hard, struggling with himself.

“We will,” he said, voice rough. “Loki...we’ll find him.”

He just had to hope that Thor would be all right when they did. Not just for Thor’s sake.

Loki kissed him again. “I’ll be back,” he said. “Soon.” He opened the door and went back into the room. After a moment Steve followed him back in. Loki was writing furiously while Jane talked, so he went over to Sif, who was standing staring out one of the windows with her fists clenched. 

“Hey,” he said carefully. “I’m going to go tell everyone else what’s going on. Do you...want to come with me?”

“I should stay here,” Sif said stiffly. “With Jane Foster.” 

Steve shifted. “I don’t think she’s in any danger.” 

“That isn’t…” Sif trailed off. “I failed. Thrice over. It is bad enough that I left Asgard, running away like a coward-” 

“You said yourself you were sent,” Steve said. “To get help, to make sure we knew what happened.”

“I did not protect Thor,” she said, ground out. “My _prince._ My oldest friend, and I let him fall before giving my own life in his stead.”

Steve’s heart twisted. He remembered how that felt. _Why did he die instead of me? Why did they all die, and not me, what’s so special about me that I got to survive-_

“Or you could’ve just died,” he said, “without it changing anything.” 

“But I left him,” Sif said harshly. “I left, believing that he was gone when he was not. I - _gave up._ I should have followed, should have found some way to, to…”

Steve’s chest ached. He remembered what Loki had said: _if you had not given him up for dead, perhaps he would never have been taken by HYDRA._ “You couldn’t have known.”

“I should have.”

“You _couldn’t_ have.” Sif just looked away, and Steve rubbed his forehead. “I have to go,” he said. Sif just nodded, and after a moment Steve added, “we’ll get him back,” trying to sound more confident than he felt.

“Yes,” Sif said, her voice suddenly firm, _hard._ “We will.” 

Steve glanced over at Loki once more and then headed back out, dialing Sam as he walked. “Get everybody together,” he said. “There’s news. I’m going to talk to Wanda first, but - my suite in twenty?” He paused. “Is T’Challa around?” 

“Don’t think so,” Sam said. “I’ll text him, but I’m pretty sure he’s in Birnin Zana. What kind of news?”

“I’ll call and update him after. It’s...maybe good news.” Steve rubbed the back of his neck. “It’ll be easier to explain all at once.”

“Okay,” Sam said after a brief hesitation. “What does ‘maybe’ good news mean?”

“I’ll tell you in twenty,” Steve said as he approached the door to Wanda’s suite, and hung up just as he knocked. 

“Just a minute!” Wanda called from inside, but barely a second later Pietro opened the door, looking at Steve like he thought he might be there to do some kind of damage before moving back. 

“It’s Steve,” he said over his shoulder. Wanda emerged from the hallway a moment later and hastened over.

“Steve, is something wrong? How’s Loki?”

“Actually,” Steve said, “He’s…” Easier to focus on why he was here. “Apparently Thor might be alive. He and Jane need your help to find him so we can get to him.” 

Wanda straightened. “Oh? Oh - where are they, of course I’ll help-”

“What kind of help?” Pietro cut in. Wanda gave him a dirty look. 

“Pietro, don’t. It’s magic, I’m sure. Whatever I can do…”

“Is it dangerous?” 

Wanda turned to Pietro and said something in Sokovian, her voice sharp. Steve didn’t quite catch it, but though Pietro scowled and crossed his arms, he backed down. Wanda turned back to Steve. “Where do I need to go?” She asked, her eyes fierce and bright, and Steve thought all over again about how _exceptional_ she was. The fact that people didn’t see that - or saw it as a bad thing - still made him angry.

“You know where Jane stays when she’s here? That’s where they are.” Wanda nodded and almost flew out the door. Steve turned to Pietro. “I take it you’ve been nominated to come to the team meeting?” He asked dryly. Pietro sort of half smiled. 

“So she told me. Well,” he amended, “she told me to butt out. Which I guess is the same thing.” 

Steve couldn’t help a small smile. “I guess so. Come on, then. Let’s see if everyone’s shown up yet.” 

He was trying not to hope too hard. Now that the possibility was there, it felt a little like if he looked too closely it might vanish.

* * *

The entire room - _everyone_ in it - was staring at Steve in silence. He hoped they were just stunned - he wasn’t entirely sure how well he’d explained everything, and he was worried he’d just come off sounding completely insane. 

Clint spoke up first. “You’re saying Thor might be alive?” 

“Based on what Hela said,” Steve said, “it seems like it’s at least - a possibility.”

“And Loki and Doctor Foster are building a wormhole to go find him,” Bucky said, an odd expression on his face. 

“That’s the idea. With Wanda’s help.”

“Am I the only one thinking this sounds completely insane?” Scott asked. “Yes? All right, just checking.” 

“So they - do that,” Clint said, “and then we go get him. That’s the plan, right?” 

Steve hesitated. “No,” he said. “Not all of us.” Bucky’s eyes narrowed at the same time Clint’s did, and Sam opened his mouth, but Steve steamed ahead before anyone could say anything. “It’s important that most of us stay on Earth. We can’t leave it undefended. The team that goes - it’s just going to be Loki, Sif, and me.”

“And me,” Bucky said aggressively. Steve shook his head. 

“No, Buck. You need to be here.” 

“It’s not just your call,” Clint said. “Thor is our friend. Our teammate.” 

“I don’t want to argue about this,” Steve said. “I know - of course you all want to come. To be there. But...we don’t know if Hela can reach this planet, or if she’s going to try. And what if some other threat comes up? Me and Loki are both going to be gone. All other hands need to be on deck, just in case.” 

“In case what,” Bucky said caustically, “you all get yourselves killed?” 

“Or in case something shows up while we’re gone,” Steve said flatly. “Or in case Hela comes back here somehow. You can’t argue me off this one, guys.”

Sam breathed out loudly. “Especially not when you’re right,” he said. Steve gave him a surprised look, and Bucky one of utter betrayal. He spread his hands. “What? He is. We can’t leave Earth undefended. Of the people best equipped here to go into space, I’d say the two actual aliens and the guy with superpowers who’s _been_ to space before are a good call. So, yeah. Much as I hate it, Steve’s right.” 

Steve gave Sam a grateful look. “Thank you for backing me up,” he said.

“Don’t make me regret it.” 

“If that’s it, then,” Clint said, and he sounded _mad,_ “then what now?” 

“Now,” Steve said, “I guess we just have to wait.”

Bucky leaned forward. “This is a terrible plan,” he said. “You know that, right? Everything about this just screams desperation. _If_ Foster can build a wormhole, _if_ Loki and Maximoff can find Thor, _if_ you can get there and _if_ you can get him out - how much of this was Loki’s idea? How much of this is Loki grasping at straws?”

“We’ve had worse plans,” Steve said, even if Bucky was only saying something very similar to what Steve had been thinking. “If Loki says it’ll work-”

“Right,” Bucky said, “because Loki’s judgment is always great.” 

That was...fair. Steve was still sort of offended on Loki’s behalf. “Nothing is happening immediately. We have to figure out where Thor is, first, before we can even get there. After that...it’s not just Loki calling the shots.” 

“Mm-hm,” Sam said, “and you always think everything all the way through, yourself.” 

Steve scowled at Sam. Clint, surprisingly, did too. 

“Look,” Steve said. “It’s what we have right now. If anyone else has any better ideas, I’m happy to listen. But if Thor’s out there, somewhere - I’m not going to leave him there.”

“None of us wants that,” Clint said. “If you make a call, Steve, I’ll back it.” That sounded almost pointed. 

“Even if it means staying here?” Steve said, meeting his eyes. Clint grimaced, but he jerked his head in a nod. Pietro shifted. 

“Wanda isn’t going to like it,” he said. 

Steve knew she wouldn’t. “Nobody here does,” he said dryly. “What’s one more person?”

He closed down the meeting. Clint stayed stubbornly sitting down, as did Bucky for several minutes, the two of them glaring at each other. “All right,” Sam said from the doorway. “That’s enough. Break it up, kids.” 

Bucky got up. “I’m going to go see what Loki’s doing,” he said to Steve, and went out. Steve frowned after him, and then at Clint. 

“Should I ask?” 

“No,” Clint said. “We just don’t get along.” He shifted. “Steve...do you really think Thor’s alive?” 

_I want to. I’m not sure._ “What Hela said made it sound like he was,” Steve said. “She could’ve been wrong, but...if she thought he was just hiding, it seems like maybe he wasn’t injured too badly. Which means…”

Clint sat back. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, maybe.” 

Steve eyed him. “What are you thinking?” 

“I don’t know. Thinking about how you and me are sort of the last of the old guard. Bruce is MIA, Tony’s kissing government ass, Natasha’s…” He trailed off. “And now Thor. Jesus. I want him to be alive. It seems like he should be.” His hands fidgeted with nothing. 

“I know,” Steve said. 

“Is Loki going to make it if he isn’t?” Clint rubbed the back of his neck. “He’s not great with disappointment.” 

It was such a blunt way of asking the question that it made Steve flinch. He took a deep breath and let it out. “He will,” he said, with a little more certainty than he really felt. “He’s...maybe he wouldn’t have, once. But I think now…”

Well, Steve thought unhappily, he wouldn’t lash out, now. What he would do, how hard he’d crash...Clint was right. Loki didn’t do well with disappointment. He took failure hard, and this...this would be failure on a different scale. 

Clint scratched his head. “Yeah, well. I hope you’re right.” 

Steve glanced at him. “He’s not going to go after anyone for this.” 

Clint’s mouth sort of spasmed. “I know,” he said after a beat. “That’s not...the problem anymore. Is it?” Steve blinked at him, and Clint shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t know. Shit’s complicated. But I don’t want to see him implode.” 

It wasn’t forgiveness. Steve thought it might be acceptance, though. He wondered if Loki knew. “Thanks,” he said, simply. Clint shrugged again, awkwardly. 

“Keep us posted on everything. And if there’s anything we - I - can do…”

“I’ll let you know,” Steve said. Clint just nodded and headed for the door.

* * *

The next couple of days Steve found himself at loose ends. 

Jane, Loki, and Professor Adeyemi were almost constantly busy with the project of the Bifrost - he barely had time to be introduced to the professor (“Nkeoma,” she said, holding out a hand, “it’s a pleasure,”) before Loki swept her away. At least, Steve thought, they seemed to be getting along. 

He hardly saw Loki, either. He barely seemed to sleep, flitting in and out of their suite only to periodically eat, though it didn’t seem like much. By the morning of the third day (three days, how long had it been now, was Thor still okay) Steve just managed to catch him before he went plunging out the door again. 

“Hey,” he said. “Sit down. I’m making you some breakfast.”

Loki frowned at him. “I need to go help-”

“You’ve been going non-stop,” Steve said. “If you’re going to be doing something that’ll strain you at the end of this, you need to rest at some point. And you _definitely_ need to eat. So. Breakfast.” 

Loki’s lips twisted. “Time-”

“Is of the essence. I know. _Trust_ me, I know.” Steve met Loki’s eyes squarely. “You don’t have to stay for long. Just long enough to eat.”

After several beats of just staring at him, Loki sighed, his shoulders falling. “I suppose they can work without me for a bit,” he said. “If Foster herself is not resting.”

Steve frowned. “Has she not been?” 

“I suspect Sif has been intervening. When she is not hovering. Which I appreciate your not doing, by the way.”

Steve smiled wanly. “I just don’t want to get in the way.” He let go of Loki once he was sure he was going to stay and went over to the kitchen to start making omelettes. “Can I ask...how it’s going?” 

Loki exhaled. “Too slowly,” he said after a pause. “But...we can do it. Within the week.” 

Steve stopped and turned around in a whirl. “Within the week?” He said. “Seriously? That’s - that’s _great,_ Loki!”

“It’s too long,” Loki said, his head bent, staring at the table. “ _Anything_ can happen in a week, and we still have to - _reach_ him, find where he is, anchor Jane’s Bifrost to his location.”

“But it’s a step,” Steve said. “A - _huge_ step. Don’t forget that, all right? You’re - you’re building an interdimensional bridge in a week.” 

“It isn’t - a _true_ Bifrost,” Loki said. “It won’t work on its own, without magical assistance, and it’ll only reach one destination.”

“Loki,” Steve said, summoning a smile, “just take the compliment.”

Loki huffed a laugh after a brief pause, dropping his head forward. “I suppose I must. I suspect Doctor Foster is somewhat irritated that I’ve been...holding out on her.” 

Steve let go of Loki’s shoulders and went back over to the kitchen, pulling eggs out of the refrigerator. “Why were you?” 

“I don’t know,” Loki said, then sighed. “No, that isn’t true. I - well. I didn’t like her. For no particularly good reason except for what she represented to me. Which was nothing truly to do with _her._ And then…” His lips quirked slightly. “I was curious what she would figure out on her own.”

“You were-” Steve had to laugh, a little incredulous. “ _Testing_ her?” 

“I suppose.” Loki didn’t sound particularly embarrassed. Steve supposed he wouldn’t. It wasn’t like he’d done anything _wrong,_ exactly, just...deliberately unhelpful. But he couldn’t help but think that if Loki had helped earlier then they wouldn’t have to wait now. 

“It was short-sighted of me,” Loki said more quietly. “I should have thought that there might be urgent need of such a thing in the future, and not held back.” The precise echo of his thoughts made Steve blink, and he paused in slicing the vegetables. 

“There’s no point in beating yourself up over it now,” he said. “I’m glad you’re working together now.” 

Loki lifted his head just fractionally to give Steve a quick, thin smile, clearly strained. Steve turned back to the omelette, because if he couldn’t help construct a Bifrost, at least he could help with this. 

Loki wolfed down both of the omelettes Steve made and started for the door. Then he paused, looking back at Steve. 

“Thank you,” he said. Steve tried to smile. 

“You’re welcome. Easy for me to do.” 

Loki shook his head. “Not that,” he said. Steve frowned, and Loki came back over and took his hands, kissing each one and then Steve’s mouth before he smiled crookedly and went out. 

* * *

It wasn’t a week. It was two days, and a transparent image of Loki appeared in front of Steve while he was in the middle of a routine. “It’s done,” he said. His voice sounded breathless. “We’re ready.”

Steve was off running almost before Loki finished talking. He managed to slow down before he knocked someone over, but he still made it in record time, knocking loudly on the door. “Hey,” he said, “it’s me-”

Jane opened the door, her cheeks flushed. “Steve,” she said. “Come in, it’s-”

“He knows,” Loki’s voice said. He appeared behind her, throwing the door open, an almost feverish gleam in his eyes. “Sif - go find Wanda. Let’s do this.” 

Steve stepped inside, glancing over toward where a complicated, incomprehensible device was sitting. Professor Adeyemi was standing next to it, bent over and examining something, but she looked up and smiled at him.

“What are we doing?” Steve asked Loki. “What are the steps, here? We’re not - leaving _now,_ are we?” 

Loki hesitated in a way that made Steve think that maybe he’d been hoping they would be. “No,” he said. “We don’t - have to. But I want to create the anchor point so we can be ready to leave as soon as everything is in place.”

“The anchor point,” Steve said. “That’s where Thor is.” Loki jerked his head in a nod. 

“That’s what I am going to be using Wanda’s help for. And Sif’s.” 

“And mine,” Steve said, a pointed reminder. “Okay. What do you need me to do?” 

“For the moment, nothing,” Loki said. He was almost vibrating with energy. “Until Wanda gets here...where _is_ she?” 

“Sif _just_ left, Loki,” Jane said, though she sounded agitated too. Steve turned toward her. She looked exhausted as well, her hair messy and unwashed. The only one in the room who looked more or less together was Professor Adeyemi. 

“It’s miraculous,” she said, when Steve looked at her. “I know the circumstances are bad, but…if this works, it will be a leap forward for science.” 

“It’ll work,” Loki said, his voice tight. Professor Adeyemi frowned at him. 

“I’ve told you not to get short with me,” she said. Loki muttered something under his breath and shot her a sidelong look. Under other circumstances Steve might have smiled. 

Sif came back in practically dragging Wanda, who looked from Loki to Jane to the device across the room, her eyes wide, and then back to Loki. 

“What do I need to do?” She asked, without a moment’s hesitation.

Loki took a deep breath, visibly gathering himself. “Foster, Adeyemi - out,” he said. “No protests,” he added, when Jane opened her mouth, looking upset. “I can’t afford the distraction. You won’t be able to see anything, anyway. Wanda, stand with me. Steve and Sif - you’ll want to sit down.” 

Steve felt a little bubble of nervousness that he shoved aside. He crossed the room and sat, and after a moment Sif followed. She looked tense but focused, and she paused to lay a hand on Jane’s shoulder before sitting down. 

“I’m going to be right outside,” Jane said defiantly, but the glance she threw over her shoulder looked worried.

Wanda stood in front of Loki, looking up at him. She held out her hands, and after a moment Loki took them. 

“We can do this,” she said, quiet but firm, and Loki’s expression flickered. 

“Witchling,” he said, and then stopped. He closed his eyes and inhaled, then exhaled. “All of you,” he said more quietly, “if you...once this starts, it will be - very difficult to stop. Are you ready?” 

“Yes,” Sif said immediately. Wanda nodded, and Steve with her. His heart was pounding, but - he trusted Loki. 

Loki fingers tightened around Wanda’s hands and he closed his eyes. The hair on Steve’s arms stood on end, that feeling of a charge in the air, something gathering together. He slowed his breathing deliberately and tried to relax. 

He heard Sif suck in a breath and looked sharply over at her, but a moment later he did the same. It was like something wrapping around him and then sinking through the skin. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but he made himself relax, focusing on the fact that it was just Loki and Wanda, that this was for Thor, that if this worked…

_It has to work._

“Wanda,” Loki said quietly. “Now.”

He’d felt Loki use magic around him before. Even recently, he remembered how whatever Loki had used against Hela had felt. But this was - he could almost taste it, the crackling power in the room, gathering, focusing. It pulled on him like a tide going out, like it was trying to drag his feet out from under him, and Steve squeezed his eyes closed and grabbed on to the arms of the chair like he could hold himself steady that way. 

He felt something - shift. He opened his eyes and everything looked just the same, but then it didn’t - Loki and Wanda were wreathed in red and green light braided together, and at the same time they were all moving, rushing across space. Steve could feel himself stretching, his feet losing purchase, but if he slipped and fell now everything was going to be ruined-

( _hold on,_ he thought furiously, _hold on, Steve-_ )

“ _Yes,_ ” he heard - felt? - heard Loki say, and then something snapped like a rubber-band stretched to its limit giving way. 

He rocked physically back in his chair, hand going to his chest like he could feel something there. He could hear Sif gasping and forced his eyes open, looking for Wanda and Loki. She was on her feet, swaying, and supporting Loki, who looked about an inch from fainting. Steve started to get up and fell back, his legs too weak to hold him. 

“Loki,” Sif said, her voice rough and breathless but urgent. “Did you - is he-”

Steve held his breath. Loki raised his head slowly, his face almost grey, panting and visibly shaking. His eyes were wide and Steve’s stomach plunged with dread, but then the corners of his lips twitched toward a weak, weak smile. 

“I found him.”

All the air rushed out of Steve’s lungs. Sif let out a laugh, harsh but full of relief and joy. “You found him? Where? Where is he, _how_ is he-”

“I don’t know,” Loki said, strain still audible in his voice. “A - a long ways away. I don’t recognize...it doesn’t matter. I locked the location into our new Bifrost-” he gestured, and Steve realized that it was glowing, now, a slight hum emanating from it. “--it’s ready. As soon as - we can go to him.” 

“Sit down,” Wanda said, sounding worried, though Steve could see that she was shaky and pale too. She gave him a little push. The door banged open and Jane came back in. 

“What happened?” She demanded. “I felt - what happened, did it work?” 

“It worked,” Sif said, her smile almost hurting to see. Loki was sitting down on the couch, his head between his knees; Wanda was sitting down next to him pinching the bridge of her nose, but she looked relieved. The hope Steve had been trying not to feel swelled. 

“It worked?” Jane repeated, like she was afraid she hadn’t heard right. 

“Loki found him,” Sif said, “and we’re going to bring him home.”

* * *

After that, everything went almost alarmingly fast. 

Loki more or less passed out, dead to the world - Steve could sympathize. Steve left him to it and focused on everything else - updating the rest of the team and trying to figure out what the hell he should pack for a mission to an alien planet about which he knew basically nothing. 

The real surprise came from T’Challa, who caught Steve exiting his and Loki’s room and said simply, “come with me.”

“All right?” Steve said, a little nervous in spite of himself. T’Challa gave him a slight smile. 

“You aren’t in trouble. I have something for you.” 

Steve followed him to a wing of the building he couldn’t remember going to before. “I was thinking about waiting for your birthday,” T’Challa said, “but the timing seemed appropriate.” 

“For my birthday?” Steve said, and when T’Challa quirked an eyebrow at him realized he was joking. “All right, I’ll admit I’m curious.” 

T’Challa’s eyes turned back forward, his expression sobering. “I wish I’d been more help lately. With Thor’s disappearance, and your attempt to retrieve him. But there have been a great many things demanding my attention in Birnin Zana.”

“Is everything all right?” Steve asked. 

“It will be,” T’Challa said, with a kind of firmness that suggested he didn’t really want to discuss it. “At any rate - if I cannot be more directly involved, I hope at least this will help.” 

He tapped in a keypad for a set of doors and walked in, over to a drawer he unlocked with a touch of his finger, sliding it out. 

Steve’s eyes widened as he stepped forward, looking down at the unpainted metal disc. “Pick it up,” T’Challa urged, and Steve lifted it out of the casing. It felt a little lighter than the old one, the balance a little different - but if anything, better. 

“T’Challa,” he said, thrown. 

“It’s mostly Shuri’s work,” he said. “She’s the inventor of the family. I just asked her to see what she could do.”

“You left it blank,” Steve murmured. It felt good on his arm. It was - he didn’t regret letting the old one go. But it still felt good to have it back. 

“I thought the decoration should be up to you.” 

Steve looked up at T’Challa and smiled. “Thank you,” he said, honestly. “And - thank Shuri, too. You’ll probably see her before I do, but I’ll make sure she hears it from me, too.” He took a deep breath. “T’Challa - all you’ve done for us...I owe you. _We_ do. If there’s ever anything I can do to give back…”

“You’ll know.” T’Challa’s small smile faded. “Though that may mean that I ask you to go.”

“I know,” Steve said. “I know this isn’t forever. I never meant to ask for it to be. And if-”

“But not yet,” he interrupted. “For now - go find Thor.” He pulled a shoulder harness out of the drawer and held it out. “Properly armed.”

It felt like there was more that Steve should be doing to prepare, but mostly it was just a waiting game for everything else: putting the finishing touches on the Bifrost, making what last minute preparations they could. Sif looked like she was going to crawl out of her skin for waiting, and almost the second Loki was back on his feet he was transparently ready to go, but they gave it twenty-four hours. No time at all. Far too long. 

“I can’t honestly say I wish I was going with you,” Sam said while Steve surveyed the small pack that was all he was going to bring. “But I do wish you weren’t going.” Steve turned and gave him a hard look, and Sam shook his head. “I’m not saying you shouldn’t. Or that I think you won’t. Just...Jesus, Steve. The risk factor alone on using untested technology to travel through space _._ And that’s not even getting into the fact that you’re going to be landing on probably hostile territory without knowing anything about it or having any way to do recon…”

“I’m going,” Steve said flatly. Sam gave him a crooked smile.

“Yeah, I know you are. But in case no one had pointed all that out to you...I figured someone should.” He pulled Steve into a quick hug. “Take care of yourself, all right?”

“I’m not going to be alone, remember?” Steve said.

“I know,” Sam said. “That’s the only reason I’m not freaking out _more._ ” 

But in the end it was just him, Sif, and Loki, the three of them standing together waiting to be thrown into space. 

“Good luck,” he heard Jane say, before she, and Earth, were swept away.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to Week Three! And as always: a huge thank you to everyone reading, commenting, leaving kudos, sending messages on Tumblr...you guys are great. My brain has been trying to kill me this month (this year?) but getting those nice words in my inbox can light up a whole day. 
> 
> I feel like it's worth saying that there are already two existing follow-up fics to this one. It's not quite going to be "all RTC all the time" around here but...maybe for a little while it will be. 
> 
> And on we go.

Jane’s Bifrost felt nothing like what Steve remembered of the original: it was, if he was honest, even less pleasant. For a moment when he landed Steve was certain he would be sick; he did reel unsteadily on his feet, almost falling. He realized belatedly, though, that that might be because of the decidedly uneven ground under his feet. 

He turned to look at Loki and Sif. Both of them looked ashy, too, Loki bent over and breathing hard. “Are you okay?” Steve asked, alarmed. Loki shook himself and straightened. 

“Just the magic to help activate the Bifrost,” he murmured. “I’ll be fine in a moment.” 

Steve felt a twinge of worry and wanted to ask if Loki needed to rest, but he decided that wouldn’t get him anywhere - at least not right now. Besides, it was more important at the moment to take a good look at where they’d landed.

They were surrounded by mountains of trash. Even just glancing around Steve could see the detritus of what looked like a dozen cities, and it just extended as far as he could see in most directions; looking up, he could see holes in the sky spitting out more. 

“ _This_ is where Thor is?” Sif said, sounding disgusted. “Are you certain?” 

Loki’s eyes were wide but the set of his mouth was determined. “I’m certain. It makes sense - look at the sky. This is a place of lost and discarded things. It must be that...when things fall out of the universe, this is where they go.” 

“He could be anywhere!” Sif said, her voice raised. 

“Maybe that would be a good place to start,” Steve said, pointing. Sif and Loki turned to look, and they all stood a moment staring at the city rising above the heaps of garbage around it. Over all, a tower, faces carved on its sides. 

“I wonder who lives there,” Loki said.

“I’m going to guess whoever is in charge.” 

“Some people are coming this way,” Sif said. “And I don’t think they are friendly.” 

Steve was suddenly grateful for the weight of the shield on his back. He’d resisted taking it up again - even if it wasn’t the same as the one he’d left behind - but in the end...it was what he knew best. And it looked like he was going to need it. He turned to look where Sif had indicated and saw a group of four people, their faces covered in strange masks and wearing clothing that looked cobbled together from scraps. One of them was carrying some kind of net; another had some kind of gun over their shoulder. 

One of them shouted something in an unfamiliar language. “ _Food?_ ” Sif said, sounding indignant. 

“What did they say?” Steve asked. 

“Neither,” Loki said without answering. “We are here to speak to your ruler. His fame has spread far indeed, and we had to visit for ourselves.” 

“I’ll fight if that’s what they want,” Sif said. “Have you seen a warrior called Thor?” She asked them, her hand on her sword. “He is one of the Aesir, blonde-”

The one with the gun leveled it in her direction. Steve reached for his shield and Loki’s hand snapped out to stop him. “Sif,” he said. She glanced at him, and Loki paused a moment before saying, “you’re right.” 

One of the aliens took a step forward. The gun started to glow and they repeated the same question as before. “Guys,” Steve said lowly.

Loki turned abruptly back to their visitors and raised his voice again. “Our belligerent friend - she is your fighter.” 

Sif’s eyes widened. “You-!” Her sword whipped out and she lunged, but Loki ducked under her blow and rammed his shoulder into her solar plexus, then pivoted and flipped her onto her back. 

“Loki!” Steve said, starting to lunge for him to pull him away from her, but he stopped midway through the motion, jerked up short by Loki’s magic. He fought it, even knowing he wouldn’t be able to get free. 

He couldn’t remember the last time Loki had used magic _against_ him, and he couldn’t help but feel betrayed that he was doing it now. A part of him knew this had to be part of Loki’s plan, but at the same time - this was Thor, and he knew Loki and Sif weren’t good friends. Would he, just maybe, think it was expedient to sacrifice her - even temporarily - for Thor’s sake? 

“All yours,” Loki said, gesturing to Sif, who was struggling against what seemed to be a similar binding, snarling at Loki. 

“You bastard,” she said. “You traitor, you - son of a Jotun whore, you’ll pay for this-” Loki flinched, very briefly, his face hardening to stone, and Steve wavered, panic thudding under his breastbone. 

“Loki,” he said desperately. “Not like this,” but Loki didn’t even glance at him. The aliens approached slowly, the one with the net coming forward and glancing between Loki and Sif, and briefly at Steve. 

“Welcome to Sakaar,” they said, voice halting and awkward. “You’ll want - that way.” They pointed to the city, plainly wary of Loki. 

“Thank you,” Loki said pleasantly. “It’s a pleasure doing business with you.” He turned his back and took Steve’s arm as the spell holding Steve back. Steve tried to pull away, staring at Loki, incredulous. Loki didn’t look back at him as he started walking; Steve planted his feet so he couldn’t be pulled along, looking back toward Sif as she was dragged away. His stomach churned. He wanted to pull free, but he recognized Loki’s grip as one he couldn’t break. 

“It should have been you!” Sif shouted at the top of her lungs. “It should have been you to fall, not him!” 

Steve heard Loki suck in a breath, but he so much as look over his shoulder. “Steve,” he said. “Let’s go.” 

“No,” he said harshly. “We can’t leave her. I don’t know what the hell you’re thinking, Loki, but-”

Finally, Loki looked at him, expression unreadable. “Isn’t it worth it if it means reaching Thor?” 

“How does giving her up to - god knows what help us get to Thor?” Horror was mounting, and disbelief, but he caught a very slight, unhappy quirk of Loki’s mouth. 

“We’ve done this before,” he said quietly, after a moment. “It was...a tactic we cultivated. My idea, most of the time. Usually one or more of the others was there, too. Work from two directions, within and without. Send one or more in to find whomever needed rescuing. I could be a distraction in the meantime, working with more freedom. Playing to my strengths.

“Sif isn’t a diplomat and never will be, but she is a warrior - and so is Thor. If this is the greeting for strangers on this planet...what do you think will have happened to him? But if all of us are imprisoned...We know nothing about how things work here, and Sif can better work her end of that doing what she does best.”

Loki looked away again. “At least I know it was convincing,” he said, and Steve couldn’t mistake the faint bitterness in his voice. 

He felt a deep, painful twist of guilt. He knew Loki and Sif had deliberately made it as convincing as possible. But that he’d still even half believed that Loki would throw her to the wolves…

“I’m sorry,” he said honestly. Loki shrugged. 

“You had reason,” he said. “It’s true, if I had to. I - like Sif. For all her faults, for all the...strife between us. But I would choose Thor over her every time.”

He said it so simply, like it was so obvious, that it made Steve feel a little cold. It made him wonder, nervously, how many people Loki would give up to save him?

They kept walking, both of them silent though there was plenty of noise around them. Every couple of seconds something fell out of another portal in the sky with a crash. 

“So this is...Sakaar?” Steve said eventually. “Have you ever heard of it before?” 

“No,” Loki said. “I cannot say that I have. Wherever this is...it is outside the Nine. I can feel that much. Why there should be so many portals that open here...I have no idea. Perhaps it is located at some sort of significant nexus of dimensions?” Steve could see Loki pressing his thumb into the palm of his left hand, rubbing nervously at the skin. “But I’m afraid that I don’t really know what to expect. We just have to be ready for anything that may come.”

“Anything,” Steve said. “Used to be I thought I knew what that meant. Now…”

The trash began to thin as they neared the city. “We’ll do some listening,” Loki said, speaking quietly. “Reconnaissance. See what we can find out about this planet, whoever lives in this tower, what our approach should be.”

“I’ve got your back,” Steve said simply. Loki glanced at him, and smiled, and if it was small, it was genuine.

“I know,” he said, which was somehow exactly what Steve needed to hear. 

* * *

Steve had expected it to be harder to get information, but all anyone wanted to talk about was the ruler of this place, who was known only as “the Grandmaster.” _But what’s his_ name, Steve kept wanting to ask, but he suspected he wouldn’t get an answer. 

As for anything else about him...it was hard to sort out the truth from what sounded like wild rumor. The Grandmaster was immortal. The Grandmaster had wild sex parties every night with over a hundred participants. The Grandmaster wasn’t real. They heard a lot about some kind of _games_ that he ran, though their nature wasn’t entirely clear _._

One thing was: whoever he was, the Grandmaster owned this planet.

“We need to get to him,” Loki said. He was clearly restless, anxious, which was unsurprising. “He’s the one with all the power, which means that everything on this planet will flow toward him.”

“We need more of a plan than that,” Steve protested. “What, are you just going to walk up to the front door and ask where he put Thor?” 

“No,” Loki said, and then smiled crookedly. “We’re going to walk up to the front door and ask where the party is.”

Steve almost squawked. He did gape at Loki, incredulous. “You can’t be serious.” 

“I am,” Loki said. “If we control the approach, that gives us more control over how we move things forward from there. Besides, I have a guess that it’ll catch him by surprise.” 

“Catching an autocrat by surprise might just mean getting thrown in prison. At best,” Steve said. 

Loki flashed a smile. “Why, Steve. You underestimate me.”

That smile just made Steve feel distinctly nervous. “Or you overestimate yourself.”

For a moment Steve thought Loki was going to react with anger, but then he settled back on his heels, visibly calming himself. “Maybe,” he allowed. “But while I don’t know anything for certain...I can gain impressions based on what we’ve heard. This Grandmaster - he seeks entertainment. Everything on this planet is centered around him, and his whims seem to steer what goes on here. Someone with that much power - tends to grow bored. They are always seeking something new, something... _different._ No doubt he has plenty of sycophants fawning at his feet; that isn’t interesting anymore. What will be is two strangers who arrived under their own power walking into his sanctum and approaching him directly.”

It still sounded unspeakably risky to Steve, but he supposed that maybe Loki had a point. And it wasn’t as though Steve had a better idea. 

“Besides,” Loki added after a moment, “if we mention Sif, then we can say that we brought a gift. I imagine he will appreciate that.” 

Steve had to wince, but he supposed Loki wasn’t wrong about that, either. “All right,” he said finally. “We can do it your way.” 

Loki leaned in and gave him a quick kiss at the corner of his mouth. “I’ve played more dangerous games than this,” he said. “And alone. This time...I have a defender with me.” 

Steve huffed, dropping his head, a little embarrassed. “I’ll do my best,” he said, and if it was a little wry, he still meant it. A moment later, though, he realized what Loki probably meant by _more dangerous games than this,_ and a lump settled in his stomach. He remembered what he’d seen in the memory Amora had brought back: Loki on his knees before a shadowy figure. _This will require a delicate touch. But with a little patience...I can make something of him._

He reached for Loki as he started to turn away, pulling him back around. “You’re not going to be on your own again,” he said, quiet but fierce. Loki blinked at him.

“Steve?” He said.

“I’m just saying,” he said, feeling a little foolish, and let go. 

It wasn’t hard to find their way to the tower; the city was, very literally, built around it. Loki unlocked the enormous front door - brightly colored enough to almost hurt Steve’s eyes - with a wave of his hand, and they did indeed just walk inside. 

Steve expected guards. What he got was a lobby with something like a reception desk, the person behind it - the _alien_ behind it, they reminded Steve of nothing so much as a dinosaur with the feathers of a bird of paradise - looking surprised to see them.

There was a fountain in the middle of the room that was as tall as the Hulk. Steve stared at it. 

Loki, meanwhile, strolled up to the desk and smiled coolly. “I’m looking for the Grandmaster,” he said. “I don’t suppose you could tell me where to find him?” 

“I’m sorry,” the receptionist said. “What?” To Steve’s relief, at least he could understand _her._ He wondered how: if she was speaking something like what Loki and Thor did, or if Loki was doing something, or if it was just a property of this tower itself.

“The Grandmaster,” Loki repeated, his tone all haughty confidence. “That is what he calls himself, isn’t it? That’s the name I’ve heard.”

“That is…” She shook herself, and glanced toward the doors, and then toward him. “Who let you in?” 

“I let myself in,” Loki said easily. “I’m not accustomed to waiting on others, and after having come such a long way…”

She opened her mouth and then closed it. “Um,” she said finally. “That’s...very irregular. I should probably call security.” 

Loki leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk. “That won’t be necessary, will it?” He asked, and smiled warmly at her. “I’m not planning anything _nefarious._ ”

Her feathers fluttered. Steve knew nerves when he saw them. “No,” she said, “I really think I need to call security.” 

Steve tensed, alarm spiking, but while Loki’s smile fell away he didn’t seem alarmed. “Very well,” he said with a dramatic sigh. “Do as you must.” He turned away and walked over to examine the fountain. After a moment Steve followed him. 

“She’s calling security,” he said. “You don’t think we should be worried about that?” 

“No,” Loki said. “I am not.” 

“Why not?” Steve asked. Loki reached out and took his arm.

“Because we aren’t going to be here for long enough to deal with them.”

“What do you mean?” Steve asked. Across the lobby, elevator doors slid open and three bulky guards stepped out. Steve tensed, shifting stance slightly, but Loki squeezed his arm. 

“With me,” he said, voice low, and started walking toward the elevator. Steve’s eyes widened and he balked, looking toward the guards in alarm, but they were over by the reception desk and hadn’t so much as glanced in his and Loki’s direction. 

“You called?” One of them said.

“Yes,” Steve heard the receptionist say as Loki pulled him across the room and through the still open elevator doors. “Two unauthorized guests…”

“Where?” Steve heard, before the elevator doors slid shut with a quiet chime. He glanced at Loki, his heart still hammering in his chest.

“Give me a little _warning,_ ” he said. “I almost had a heart attack.” He stared at the bank of symbols. “Do you even know which floor we should be going to?” 

“Yes,” Loki said simply. “Or, well. An educated guess.” He pressed the button that Steve supposed would correspond to the highest floor. “People with power,” Loki said, “tend to like to be high up.”

Steve thought briefly of Tony’s tower in New York. “It does sometimes seem that way.” He wondered, by Loki’s brief smile, if his mind had gone to the same place. 

The elevator rose smoothly - a disorienting sensation that almost felt like it was hardly moving at all. The walls shimmered and music started playing: something surprisingly jazzy for elevator music. 

“If he’s not here,” Steve said, his stomach still clenched in a nervous knot, “what’s our back up plan?” 

“Find someone who does know and ask nicely,” Loki said. Steve turned to look at him, stomach dropping.

“You’re making this up as you go along, aren’t you,” he said. Loki’s mouth spasmed.

“When I plan too much,” he said after a pause, “it never seems to work out well. So for the moment - yes, I’m improvising.”

Steve almost wanted to moan. He was very, _very_ glad for the weight of the shield on his back, even if he knew that if it came to a direct fight, they’d be outnumbered and maybe even outgunned. 

“I’m sorry,” Loki said after a moment, quieter. “I shouldn’t have dragged you into this.”

“You didn’t drag me into anything,” Steve said. “I wouldn’t have let you leave me behind.”

The elevator came smoothly to a halt and the doors slid silently open. Steve almost flinched back at the sudden explosion of noise, and saw Loki’s shoulders slide visibly down. “Well,” he said with a faint smile, “I think we came to the right place.” 

It was easy to follow the noise down the hall to a wide open room, a cacophony of color and a milling crowd, and in the center of it all-

Well, it wasn’t hard to pick out who the Grandmaster must be.

For one thing, he was in the literal center of the room, on a raised sort of dais. For another, while he was lounging on a couch, much like Loki could, he managed to make it look like a throne. There was a flock of people fluttering around him, all obviously jockeying for his attention, and the colors he was wearing - red, blue, and gold - perfectly matched the color of the decor.

Steve hated him on sight. 

Next to him, he heard Loki pull in a quiet, sharp breath. “Oh,” he said. “Oh, that’s...oh, Norns.” 

“What?” Steve said, alarm spiking. Loki swallowed. 

“I was expecting a petty tyrant,” he said. “But he is...Steve, don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t think you should talk.” 

“He’s what?” Steve asked, but then the Grandmaster looked at them - _directly_ at them - and cocked his head to the side, eyebrows twitching up. 

“Well,” he said, voice raising, “I don’t think I’ve seen _you_ before. And I’d definitely remember if I had. Where did you come from?” 

Sudden silence fell. The question was addressed to Loki, but Steve still tensed. Loki smiled, though, and it was so easy that Steve almost believed it was genuine. “From downstairs,” he said. 

The Grandmaster leaned back. “Oh,” he said. “ _Well._ Bit of cheek, huh, interesting. I meant a bit more _generally_ than that.”

“Vanaheim,” Loki said. “A long ways from here-”

“Vanhelm,” the Grandmaster said, though Steve was somehow almost sure that he had heard exactly what Loki had said. “Van...never heard of it. Clearly I _should_ have, if it came up with such a...something like you.”

“I’m flattered,” Loki said. Steve felt like he was going to crawl out of his skin and had to try not to edge closer to Loki, trying to watch the entire room at once. 

“Good! You should be.” The Grandmaster stood up and glided over. “And you just...walked in. That’s very...quite audacious.” 

“I’m known for my audacity.” Loki’s smile widened, all charm. “But, well. After everything I’ve heard about Sakaar, and the Grandmaster...I simply couldn’t wait for an invitation.”

Steve almost felt the stillness in the room. The vibration of tension, like everyone was waiting for something awful to happen. He readied himself to reach for his shield and get in front of Loki, the _second_ anyone moved. 

Then, abruptly, the Grandmaster laughed. “Wow,” he said. “Wow, you really are - _something,_ uh - what’s your name?”

“Loki,” he said smoothly. 

The Grandmaster’s gaze moved sideways, landing on Steve. “And your...ah, companion?” 

“Steve,” Loki said, turning his head and giving him a smile that was both indulgent and condescending. Steve pressed his lips together and tried hard not to bristle, reminding himself of what Loki had said about _not speaking._ This was Loki’s game, and he knew how to play it better than Steve did. 

He couldn’t let his temper get the better of him now.

“ _He’s_ not like you,” the Grandmaster said, walking over closer to them. Steve’s skin prickled, the hair on the back of his neck rising, and he tried hard to keep his expression neutral. “Are you, Steve? You’re something different. And very...very quiet. So...where’d you come from?” 

“I’m human,” Steve said after a moment. “From Earth. Midgard,” he added after a moment. 

“Terra,” Loki said, when the Grandmaster frowned, and he straightened. 

“Oh! That name I’ve heard. Once. Four...five hundred years ago? Had a visitor from there. What happened to him? Topaz?” He turned toward a disgruntled looking woman standing by the couch where he’d been holding court.

“He died.” 

“Oh, right.” The Grandmaster turned back, eyeing him with an unnerving amount of hunger. “So,” he said. “Human, are you? _That’s_ interesting.” 

“Ah,” Loki said. “I wouldn’t. He is mine. And more delicate than he looks.” 

Steve gave him a sharp look, stung in spite of knowing that it was probably necessary. 

“Yours?” The Grandmaster said, his expression turning calculating, looking from Loki to Steve, his up and down scan of Steve’s body frankly appraising. “You _are_ a handsome specimen. I guess it’d be a pity to ruin that.” Steve’s jaw clenched and his face warmed, but he made himself meet the Grandmaster’s eyes directly. His eyebrows shot up, but he looked delighted, turning back to Loki. “I don’t suppose you’d be interested in-”

“No,” Loki said, his voice hard and flat, and the Grandmaster blinked slowly. Loki’s eyes flicked sideways to Steve and he visibly forced himself to relax. “I’m afraid not.”

“You’re awfully bold,” the Grandmaster said, sounding less amused. “Waltzing onto my planet with nothing to offer. Refusing all my simple requests.” He seemed almost about to pout. Steve tensed, glancing around at the people surrounding them, looking for their best exit. 

“Well,” Loki said, and Steve heard the shift in his voice and turned sharply back in his direction. “I might not refuse _all_ your requests.”

“Loki,” Steve said, a prickle going up his spine. He _recognized_ that tone, and hearing it directed at someone else - at this...egotistical _tyrant_ \- made him feel ill. 

“ _Well_ now,” the Grandmaster said, seemingly ignoring him. “An interesting proposition.” 

“Loki,” Steve repeated, lower and a little louder. “Don’t.” 

“Mouthy one, isn’t he,” the Grandmaster said, without even glancing in Steve’s direction. Loki did, his expression warning Steve to keep quiet. Steve’s nausea intensified.

“It’s part of his charm.” Loki’s eyebrows lifted, the quirk of his lips almost coy. Steve knew that expression, too. He’d seen it many, many times when Loki was teasing him. He wondered what the Grandmaster would do if Steve threw up on his feet. 

The Grandmaster laughed and shook his head. “The gumption!” He said. “Let me think about it. I suspect you are a dangerous one. But that might just make it more fun.”

Steve reached out for Loki’s arm and he moved subtly out of reach. “So,” he said. “Could we stay a while? I’d love to see these...games that I’ve heard so much about.” 

The Grandmaster swanned a little closer, standing _far_ closer to Loki than Steve would like. He tried to hold a poker face and knew he wasn’t doing very well. “Would you, now.” He glanced at Steve, cocking an eyebrow at him. “Both of you?” 

Steve felt his jaw tense and tried to make it relax, looking back at him unblinking. The Grandmaster’s smile widened a fraction. “Ooh,” he said. “I like this one. Are you sure he can’t come?” 

_I can speak for myself,_ Steve wanted to say, but Loki’s hand landed on his arm and he felt him squeeze. 

“I’m afraid not,” Loki said. “My most sincere apologies.” 

“Stick around a while,” the Grandmaster said. “See if we can’t change your mind.” He winked at Steve. “Welcome to Sakaar. You, over there - show these two to a room.”

Steve exhaled when the man’s attention turned away and looked at Loki, who squeezed his arm without looking back. “Shall we?” He said lightly, to the servant who approached them. Steve tried not to stare at their face, which seemed to be comprised almost entirely of waving white tentacles. They turned without speaking, gesturing at them to follow.

* * *

The room they were shown to was…

Well, it was something. Steve didn’t know where to look first: at the enormous bed that could easily fit six or seven grown men, at the bubbling, steaming pool sunk in the floor, at what he might have called a ‘fish tank’ except that the creatures inside looked more like translucent dragons rippling with a variety of colors, or at the shelf lined with a series of glass objects it took Steve a moment too long to identify. 

He coughed and looked away, his face heating up. Loki was standing in the center of the room turning in a slow circle. 

“Well,” he said. “This isn’t the _worst_ decor I’ve ever seen.” 

“I’m not sure I want to know what is,” Steve said, but there was something more serious he couldn’t lose track of. “What happened back there…”

Loki walked over to the shelf and frowned at it. “It’s good. We’re in a position now to look for Thor in - relative safety. We know he’s here somewhere, and odds are good this ‘Grandmaster’ knows where.”

“The Grandmaster,” Steve said slowly. “What is he?” 

“I don’t know, exactly,” Loki said, “but...nothing I’ve personally encountered before. If I had to guess...if I had to guess, one of the Eternals. True immortals. Very powerful. And, almost to a one, entirely insane.”

Steve swallowed hard. “Are you really going to sleep with him,” he asked, trying to keep his voice level. Loki paced away from the shelf, still not looking at him.

“It’d be a simple way to get him to drop his guard. Perhaps convince him to surrender Thor, if we’re lucky.” 

“You can’t be serious,” Steve said. Loki said nothing, and he felt a flare of anger. “You _can’t._ ”

Loki ran his fingers through his hair. “It wouldn’t matter. Wouldn’t mean anything. You ought to know as much. I am hardly about to _leave_ you for a - hedonistic creature like _that._ ”

Steve’s chest tightened and he gritted his teeth. “I’m not jealous,” he said, though that wasn’t completely true. There was some small part of him that had thought _back off, he’s mine_ , but that wasn’t half of his problem with it. “I just - do you really not see _anything_ wrong with this idea?”

“It might not work,” Loki said. “And I suppose there’s a possibility that it wouldn’t be pleasant-”

Steve’s jaw was going to start hurting if he grit it any harder. “You’re talking about _having sex_ with a dangerous man you know almost nothing about who throws people in a ring to watch them kill each other for his entertainment. And you don’t see a _problem_ with that?” 

Loki turned, finally, and blinked like that actually hadn’t occurred to him. Maybe, Steve thought angrily, it hadn’t. 

“You keep doing this,” Steve snapped. “You keep acting like - like you’re expendable, like even if you aren’t putting your _life_ at risk it’s fine for you to screw yourself over as long as it gets the job done. You did it after what happened with Thanos taking control of you, when you decided to stop sleeping. You did it on Asgard when you turned yourself over to Sif. You did it with Ross when you wouldn’t leave with Bucky and me. You did it with HYDRA when you thought I was dead and again with Amora. Hell, you did it with _me,_ when you made me hurt you without telling me because you thought you deserved it. When does it stop? You said you’re not going to leave, that you’re not trying to self-destruct, but it sure as hell feels otherwise!”

Loki stared at him like he’d been clubbed between the eyes. Like maybe it really _hadn’t_ occurred to him that Steve might have _noticed._

“What if it were me,” Steve snapped. “Would you let _me_ do it?”

“Of course not,” Loki snapped. “I couldn’t stand the thought of his hands on you. I’d cut his throat first.”

“And you think I could stand it?” Steve asked. “You think I wouldn’t want to kill him? Everything else aside - don’t you think you’ve been violated enough? And don’t tell me that’s not what it’d be,” he said, when Loki started to open his mouth. “You know it would.”

Loki swallowed, his eyes still wide. Steve exhaled harshly.

“You’re mine, too. Remember?” He managed to moderate his tone. A little. Based on the way Loki twitched, he didn’t seem to hear much of a difference. “Just as much as I’m yours.” 

Loki rocked back on his heels, something softening in his face though he still looked stunned. “Oh,” he said quietly. “Well.” He glanced away and then back to Steve. “Then...then we will think of something else.”

Steve slumped in relief, dropping his head forward. “Thank you,” he said quietly.

“I am sorry,” Loki said suddenly. “For...it is selfish. To put myself at risk. I think perhaps it is just...a hard habit to break. It has always seemed...worthwhile. A low enough cost for what I might gain.”

“That’s the problem,” Steve said. “That you think your safety is ‘a low enough cost.’”

Loki sighed and glanced away, but he jerked his head in a nod. “I will...try to remember that.” 

“Good.” Steve took a breath and let it out. “So. What do we need to do?”

Loki rubbed his fingers against his temples. “We need to find Sif and see what she’s found out. And I need to find out more about this place. The more we know about how things work here, the better off we will be.”

“ _You_ need to,” Steve said. “Are you talking about splitting up? Is that a good idea?” 

“I think it’s a necessary one.” Loki took a deep breath and let it out. “I don’t like it either. But I’m better suited to create a distraction than you are, and I think we will need a distraction. This place...there are eyes watching. A lot of them. I could shield us both, but it’ll be better if fewer people are looking for you in general.” 

Steve pressed his lips together. “And what exactly are you going to do as a distraction?” He asked. Loki gave him a half smile.

“Nothing you wouldn’t approve of. I promise you.”

“It makes me a little nervous when you won’t be specific,” he said. Loki’s smile softened, though it turned a little sad. 

“You doubt a promise?” Steve felt a pang, but Loki shook his head. “No, I know what you mean. I might flirt a little. Flatter more than that. But nothing more. I’ll be careful, Steve. And you...you be doubly so.” 

“I will.” Steve walked over to him and pulled Loki into a hug, then kissed him gently. “We can do this.” 

“Of course,” Loki said. He brushed his fingers along Steve’s jawline. “It’s a pity there isn’t more time. I know the circumstances are dire, but I’m very intrigued by the selection of toys.” 

Heat spread up the back of Steve’s neck. “I bet you are,” he said. Loki pulled away. 

“Go on,” he said. “But come back soon. Don’t make me come after you.”

* * *

Steve expected that finding his way to the housing for the Grandmaster’s ‘contestants’ would be a challenge, but in fact he found fairly well indicated signage pointing the way. He frowned at it, expecting a trap, but as far as he could tell it was just...there. 

Of course, when he followed the signs and hit the door at the end of the hallway, it was locked. Steve tried the handle, just in case, and then checked the lock mechanism - an electronic passcode. He looked upwards toward where he’d left Loki, wondering if _he_ shouldn’t be the one doing this. 

Steve checked the keypad again, grimaced, and then out of some perverse urge to try _something_ tapped out the keys that might correspond to _1-2-3-4_ on Earth. 

The door beeped and slid open. Steve almost laughed. “Really?” He said under his breath, but didn’t let himself hesitate before slipping through.

He was standing in some kind of hallway that bent away in two directions, looking like it must at some point meet to form a circle. The floor was gritty under his boots, the quality of the light decidedly unpleasant. 

Steve started to the right, hoping that he was right about the corridor forming a circle. He stopped when he saw the first door - heavy, solid, metal, entirely unmarked. Only a few feet further on there was another.

Sif must be behind one of these doors, Steve thought, and Thor another, but how was he to know which? Loki _should_ be here, Steve thought again. He would know which to try.

There was no reason why he would, but the thought stuck in Steve’s brain nonetheless. 

“Thor?” He called carefully, keeping his voice low. “Sif?” No answer. He moved a little further down and tried again. “Thor?” 

“ _Steve?_ ”

Air flooded Steve’s lungs along with a relief so strong it almost hurt. He’d needed to believe that Thor was alive, as hard as he’d tried to talk himself out of hoping for anything. But that was his voice, plain as day, and Steve almost laughed. 

“Where are you?” He called. “It’s me, I’m here.”

A door on the right opened. “Come quickly,” Thor said. “You aren’t safe-”

Steve didn’t need to be told twice. He ran down the hall, grabbing the door and stepping hurriedly inside. Thor closed it firmly behind him and Steve turned to look at him. He only had a moment before Thor almost lifted him off the floor in a hug. 

“Norns,” Thor said, and he almost sounded like he might cry. “I am glad to see you.”

Steve hugged him back, though he had registered something in the brief glimpse he’d gotten of Thor. “Thank god,” he said. “You’re alive.”

Thor stiffened abruptly. “Wait,” he said. “Are you…” He set Steve down, pushing Steve back, and he saw that all Thor’s hair had been cut off, shorn down to a startlingly Midgardian length. Less surprising was that he looked worn, exhausted. Oddly, he took Steve’s head and turned it from side to side, then exhaled in obvious relief. “You’re free.” 

“I’m…” Steve noticed, belatedly, that there was some kind of black disc on the side of Thor’s neck. Thor saw him looking and his mouth tightened. 

“An obedience disk,” he almost growled. “They keep the Grandmaster’s _contenders_ under control.” As quickly as his expression had darkened, though, it cleared. “If you did not fall here, then…”

“Loki’s here with me,” Steve said. “We…” Oh god. Thor didn’t know that his father was dead. 

“Loki,” Thor breathed, and smiled in obvious relief. “He’s here?” He looked around as though expecting to see him. 

“Here,” Steve said, “but he sent me to find you. He’s working on finding us a way out.” 

Thor’s expression darkened again. “He mustn’t underestimate the master of this place. He might seem harmless, but…”

“Don’t worry,” Steve said quickly. “He knows. He’s being careful.” _I hope._ “Sif’s here too. We separated - Loki pretended to betray her so she could follow your path - here, I guess.” 

Thor’s eyes widened. “Sif? She survived?” 

“Yes,” Steve said. “She came to find us on Earth. She said…” Steve swallowed. “Thor...I’m so sorry.”

He moved back from Steve and sat down on the bed. “It happened so quickly. She pierced directly to the heart of Asgard. I tried to fight, but…” His fist opened and closed. “She destroyed Mjolnir. She would have destroyed me. It was only accident that brought me here instead.” He looked down. “Does Sif know...did she say if anyone else…”

“She didn’t say,” Steve said. “But…” He shouldn’t be the one to break the news. But Thor deserved to know, and Steve was the one who was here. He walked over to the bed and sat down. “Your father came to Earth.”

Thor’s head turned, the hope in his eyes almost painful. “He lives?” 

Steve bit the inside of his cheek. “Thor...I’m sorry.”

Thor’s inhale sounded unsteady. “He’s...gone, isn’t he.” Steve nodded, and Thor lowered his head into his hands. 

“I think I knew,” he said after a long silence. “But I did not want to believe…”

Steve put his hand on Thor’s back. “We’re here to get you out,” he said. “Between me, Loki, and Sif - we’ll break you free.”

Thor raised his head and gave him a tired smile that didn’t fully reach his eyes. “With the three of you...how can I not believe it?” He paused. “I have to ask...how did you find your way here?”

“Jane,” Steve said. Thor gave him a faintly surprised look, and Steve said, “she’s been…” Oh, god. He was going to have to explain what had happened with Ross, and Tony, and the Sokovia Accords. “She’s been working with us,” he settled on, for now. “And between her research, and the research of another woman, and Loki’s magic...it’s not exactly a Bifrost, but it was enough to get us here, and it’ll get us back home. But…” Steve took a breath. “I’m sorry, Thor. We should have been there for you. To help you. And we weren’t.” 

Thor gave him a long look, then huffed a quiet laugh. “You would feel that way, despite the fact that I did not ask, and you had no way of knowing. Steve...I am glad you are here now.” He looked down. “Loki is...well? And he and Sif, they have not been too much at each others’ throats?” 

“Loki’s good,” Steve said, which might be an exaggeration but was true enough. “And they’ve been fine. Though she said some things to, um, sell the idea that he’d betrayed her that I think...might’ve stung too much.” 

Thor sat up. “So Sif is...she must be somewhere here.” 

“We’ll find her next.” 

Thor nodded, staring forward and frowning. Just as Steve was going to ask what was on his mind, he jerked to his feet. “Does Loki know about Hela?” 

“We know she was the one who attacked Asgard,” Steve said slowly. “And we...met her. Briefly. Is that what you mean?” 

“No.” Thor’s jaw worked, and he turned. “She is our sister.”

Steve’s thoughts stuttered to a halt and didn’t start again immediately. “Your - what?” 

“Our sister,” Thor repeated. “Our father’s firstborn daughter. Before us - before he wed Frigga, she was his heir.” His eyes stayed on his feet. “It seems...it seems my family has always been full of secrets.” The unhappy bitterness in his voice was unmistakable. 

“Where...has she been all this time?” Steve asked slowly. Loki must not know. He would have said something, and he’d seemed as ignorant of her as Sif. 

Thor was quiet a long time. Steve shifted. “Thor?”

“I was always told that Asgard was the Golden Realm,” Thor said. “That she stood above all others by right, guardian and protector of the Nine.” His hands twisted together. “It was a lie.

“Asgard’s foundations were built on blood. My father made his name as a conqueror, with Hela at his right hand, his sword to cut down resistance. When, in the end, he decided to turn from war to peace...she would not do the same. So he shut her away in an eternal prison outside time and space. But somehow...the bonds holding her broke, and she came to claim Asgard. To begin anew what ended millennia ago.”

Steve opened his mouth and then closed it, stunned. There was...so much to process, there, starting with _the sister you didn’t know about_ to _that your father imprisoned_ and ended up on _so you’re saying your home was built on an empire of bloodshed you didn’t know about._

Somewhat bitterly, his first thought about the latter was _join the club._ Not that he hadn’t known some of the ugliness that was under the surface of his country all along, but in the seventy years he’d missed there’d been a whole lot more. And he did remember those tapestries in the halls, and the carvings on Odin’s doors, and wonder how much had really changed. 

But that wasn’t important right now. 

“God, Thor,” Steve said quietly. “I’m sorry.” 

Thor shook his head. “I feel I should have known. That father - that my father would keep all this from me, from all of us - it makes a mockery of everything I believed. Everything that I thought I knew, about Asgard, about my family itself. And now my father is dead, and what I feel is - is anger. At him.” One of his fists clenched. “I think I can understand better, now, what Loki felt when he learned that he was Jotun.”

“Yeah,” Steve said after a moment. “I...can imagine. Like having the rug pulled out from under you.” 

Thor took a deep breath and let it out. “You saw more clearly than I did,” he said. “Only a few days on Asgard, and you sensed what I would not. A part of me thinks...Hela is our history come back. The vengeance of the Nine Realms - Asgard’s weapon turned back on Asgard.” 

Steve shook his head. “It doesn’t work like that.”

“No,” Thor said after a moment. “I suppose it does not.” He stood and paced a few steps away, turning back toward Steve after a couple of moments. “If you would - I would rather you did not speak of this to Loki. I would like him to hear it from me.” 

Steve hesitated. “If he asks me straight out I’m not going to lie,” he said, “but I won’t say anything if he doesn’t.” Thor nodded, after a moment, and Steve took a deep breath. “Thor...I wish it weren’t like this. But I’m really, _really_ glad to see you.”

Thor’s smile was small, and tired, but it warmed his eyes. “As I am you,” he said. “Truly. You give me hope.” He paused. “But...I can’t leave until this - _thing_ is removed.” He touched the disk on the side of his neck, and Steve leaned over to examine it. Sick anger flared up again as he realized it was embedded in the skin. 

“How deep does it go?” Steve asked. “Can you...short it out?”

“No,” Thor said. “And trying to pull it out...I would fear the consequences.” He shook his head. “There are - controllers that can be used to release them. But I would not know where to find one.” He scowled. “The woman who caught me would have one, but I could not tell you where to find her.” 

Steve nodded slowly. “Are you going to be okay for the night? I can go, talk to Loki, explain the situation and see if he has any ideas. I’ll get him down here tomorrow, maybe his magic...or maybe he’ll have gotten something out of the Grandmaster.”

Thor nodded. “If anyone can,” he said, sounding fond, and then sobered. “You said Sif was here as well? Go find her, before you leave. Tell her what you know. Tell her I am here.”

“Of course,” Steve said. “I will.” 

“Then go,” Thor said. “You shouldn’t stay too long. I won’t risk you being caught.” He stood at the same time Steve did, and then embraced him again. “Steve...go well.”

“I’ll be back soon,” Steve promised, and slipped back out into the hall. 

Once again, though, he had no idea where to start looking for Sif, and he was wary of just trying to shout again. No one had raised the alarm yet, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t, and he had no idea what kind of security there might be. So he was relieved when before too long, as the corridor curved around, he heard Sif’s raised voice. 

“--are of Asgard, aren’t you? Have you no loyalty?” 

“Nope,” said another voice; a strange one. “Not really.”

“Then honor. A _shred_ of decency.” 

“Look - whatever your name is. I can’t remember.”

“ _Sif._ ”

“Right, Sif. You’re cute. I’d love to help, really. But Asgard can go fuck itself.” 

“At least tell me if you have seen the prince-”

“Like I said,” the stranger said. “You’re cute. But not worth the baggage.”

“ _Don’t just walk away-_ ”

Steve heard boots and for a tense moment couldn’t tell if they were coming or going. When he was sure they were receding, he slid forward, staying close to the wall. It was easy to identify Sif’s door: it was the one that banged from inside like someone had kicked it. 

“Sif?” Steve said lowly, hurrying over. 

“Steve Rogers?” Sif said after a beat of silence. He tried the door, but unlike Thor’s it was locked; there was a keypad to the left of it. 

“Who was that?” He asked. Sif grunted. 

“A faithless traitor,” she muttered. “A woman of no loyalties.” 

Which effectively told Steve nothing, but he didn’t think that was as important right now. “Good news,” he said. “I found Thor. He’s here, and he’s all right.” 

He heard Sif exhale through the door. “Thank the Norns,” she said. Then paused and asked, “truly? You’re certain it’s him?” 

“I’m sure,” Steve said. “I saw him. The bad news is-”

Sif growled. “They put one of those _things_ on him,” she said. “Fucking-” She broke off into swearing Steve couldn’t understand, but if that was how she’d started then he could only imagine where she’d ended up. She cut off abruptly, though. “Loki. He can remove them. Right?”

“I hope so,” Steve hedged. He didn’t want to promise without knowing for sure. “I’m going to tell him what I found out, and we’ll come back tomorrow. There’s a match of some kind…” He trailed off, stomach dropping. “Are you fighting in it? Is Thor?” 

“I am not, so far as I know,” Sif said. “But if I were...I can hold my own. And Thor can as well.” Steve turned back toward where Thor’s room had been, wondering if he should go ask. But he didn’t know how much time he might or might not have.

“We’ll be back as soon as we can,” Steve said quickly. “I’m sorry - I should go. If anyone notices that I’m gone…”

“Yes,” Sif said. “Go. You’ve done more than enough, just telling me that Thor lives.”

It didn’t feel like enough. “I’ll be back,” he promised again, and headed back toward the door, moving as quickly and quietly as he could. 

* * *

Loki wasn’t there when Steve got back, and his skin prickled uneasily. _Loki can take care of himself,_ he told himself, but their conversation before had reminded him that that...wasn’t always the case. Loki was plenty strong and perfectly competent, but his judgment, especially when it came to his own safety, wasn’t always the best. 

A small voice in the back of his head that sounded like Sam said _you’re one to talk about that._

He didn’t have to wait that long before Loki did come back, though the moment he came in, Steve stiffened. He looked unsteady, and his eyes were a little glazed. 

“Are you _drunk?_ ” He asked, a little incredulous. Loki gave him a baleful look. 

“No,” he said, and then sighed and said, “not intentionally. I couldn’t refuse, and whatever it was was... _very_ strong. And I have the unnerving suspicion that there may have been something else in it, too. Though at least - my wards seem to be neutralizing that well enough.” 

Steve stiffened, hurrying over to support Loki and guide him over to the couch. “Something else? Poison?” 

“No,” Loki said with a grimace. “Not exactly. I get the impression that it was meant to tip a ‘maybe’ over into a ‘yes.’”

It took Steve a moment to realize what Loki was saying and then something squirmed unpleasantly in his stomach, along with a burst of anger. He took a deep breath. “I don’t think I like this planet very much.”

“Me neither. But we’re getting off topic.” Loki dropped onto the couch, looking unnervingly limp. “Did you find Thor?”

“Yes,” Steve said, smiling, and was glad to, for once, be bringing good news. “I found him. He’s alive, and he’s all right. Well, mostly.” 

Loki’s head fell back against the couch and the corners of his lips turned just slightly upwards. “Thank the _Norns._ Thor’s...you spoke to him? Saw him?” He paused. “Wait. What do you mean, ‘mostly’?”

“He’s one of the - gladiators, the fighters. And they’ve stuck something on him that they can use to hurt him if he tries to fight back.” 

Blurry or not, Loki’s head snapped back up at once, and the anger in his eyes was unmistakable and savage. “They did _what?_ ” 

“All of them have one,” Steve said. “All the - they’re slaves, Loki. This entire planet is full of slaves, and this Grandmaster sits at the top-”

“Steve,” Loki said, “We can’t save a planet. We need to focus on - getting Thor out.”

Steve opened his mouth, and then closed it. He felt a wave of unhappiness. “It’s not right. We should at least _try._ ” At the same time...while they were here, Earth, his friends, were on their own. Thor’s home was being destroyed. And you couldn’t topple a regime overnight - or even if they did, all they’d leave behind was chaos. “But...Thor comes first,” he said finally, heavily. “We’ll get Thor and Sif out, then…”

Loki looked like he was struggling to stay vertical. “But he’s alive,” he said, soft and almost awed. “He’s really...alive.” Loki had seemed so sure of that, but Steve realized, looking at him now, that maybe he’d never really been certain. Just desperate to believe it, because he’d needed to.

“Yeah,” Steve said quietly, sitting down next to him. “He’s really alive. Gave me a big, rib-crushing hug. He was really glad to hear you were here, and Sif. I told him you were working on the Grandmaster and he got worried.”

Loki snorted, his head tipping onto Steve’s shoulder. “Worried about _me._ When he’s the one sitting in a cell waiting to be rescued.” But he just sounded almost pleased, like he wanted to smile. 

“He’s your brother,” Steve said. “He’s always going to worry.” 

Loki raised his head, faint smile fading. “Did you tell him...about what’s happened? On Midgard, since…”

Steve winced. “No, not yet. I thought...it seems like he has enough to process for now.” 

“That makes sense,” Loki allowed after a moment. “You...told him about Odin?” His voice hitched slightly. Very slightly. Steve wondered how much Loki had really let himself think about the fact that his father was dead, and his mother missing, or if he’d just been fixating on finding Thor so he didn’t have to think about it. 

“I told him,” Steve said. Loki let out a shuddering breath. 

“Thank you,” he said. “I...maybe I should have been the one to...but I still don’t know what I feel.”

“That’s fine,” Steve said quietly. Loki relaxed into him like that was what he’d needed to hear. 

“When Sif said...what she said,” he said after a moment. “I was - I didn’t know what to do. When I thought I’d lost you it was like having my heart ripped out of my chest; when Sif said that Thor was...that he was gone, the ground fell out from under me. It was like the Void, when I didn’t know what was up and what was down and it felt like I was losing pieces of myself-”

Steve swallowed hard past the sudden lump in his throat. “Loki…”

“It scared me,” Loki said in a small voice. “How I...what I felt. Back then and...more recently, now. It hurt like nothing else I have ever felt, like I would die of it, and I…” He trailed off, breathing unevenly. Steve remembered the terror he’d felt, struggling to heal and afraid every time he woke up that it would be to bad news. 

The fear that had chased him afterwards. 

“I know,” he said, quietly. “When my mom died...and she’d been sick a long time. Or after Bucky fell from the train. It’s not…” He breathed in slowly and exhaled. “Even if...even if Thor weren’t here,” he said, “you wouldn’t. Die.” _Would you?_

Loki shuddered again. “I am. _So afraid_ of losing things. Losing everything. It all feels so _fragile -_ and the better things are the more fragile they feel. Sometimes I feel like I am just _waiting_ for the hammer blow to fall. On you, on Thor, on - everyone. Anyone.” He turned, almost nuzzling into Steve’s shoulder, and it occurred to him that he’d never - _never -_ seen Loki drunk like this. “And I am afraid of what I would do, if that happened.” 

Steve’s throat closed and he had to take a few breaths before he felt like he could respond. “When Tony told me that Ross had gotten hold of you,” he said, “I...the first thing I felt was fear, because he’d made it clear what he thought of you and whatever Tony said, I wasn’t sure what he wouldn’t do.” He looked down, though he left his arm where it was, around Loki. “Then I was angry at myself, for leaving you there.”

“You didn’t leave me,” Loki started to object. Steve shook his head. 

“That doesn’t matter right now. The point is - when I was finally flying to come get you guys out, that wasn’t what I was thinking. What I was thinking was _if they’ve done anything to Loki, I’m going to tear this place down._ And I - I really think I would’ve.” 

Loki lifted his head and looked toward Steve. “You would have?” He said, and sounded almost...touched. Which wasn’t the point, but Steve supposed Loki would find that touching. 

“It’s…” He looked down. “It scared me, a little. Catching myself thinking that and...meaning it.”

“The difference is,” Loki said, “I _did_ do it. Once already.” 

“I know.” Even now, though...Steve couldn’t muster up all that much pity for HYDRA. Maybe that was bad of him. It didn’t change how he felt. “But you’re a different person now than you were then.”

“Am I?”

“Yes,” Steve said. “You are.”

Loki’s head dropped back to Steve’s shoulder. “Sometimes I wish that I could feel in moderation. Everything is always...so much. So overwhelming.”

“It’s not all bad,” Steve said. “You love the same way. And I know that hurts sometimes, but...I’d never want that to change.”

Loki huffed, a blurry, tired-sounding laugh. “You speak as though it isn’t the same for you. As though you do not give everything of yourself. As though you are not one of the most open-hearted people that I know. You contain what you feel, more often than not, afraid to burden others - but it is there. And you love as fiercely as you fight.”

Steve felt his face warm. “You’re just flattering me.” 

“No,” Loki said, pushing himself up, and his expression was suddenly serious. “I am not. You found worth in me when I could not see it. You believed in me when I gave you no reason to - when I believed in nothing. You showed me a way out when I thought I was trapped, and have given me so much - _so_ much - over the years, and you continue to, every day.” He exhaled shakily, and Steve turned toward him and realized he was crying. 

“Okay,” he said quietly. “Okay...I think you need to go to bed.”

“I love you,” Loki said, wrapping himself around Steve like an octopus. “Love you so - so much. I just want you to know-”

“I know,” Steve said, carefully untangling Loki’s limbs and walking him over to the bed, pulling back the covers and easing him down. “Just...rest. Okay?”

Loki flung out a hand and grabbed Steve’s wrist, his eyes large. “Where are you going?” 

“Nowhere,” Steve said soothingly. “I’ll be right here.” 

“Oh,” Loki said, sinking back down. “All right.” He turned on his side, curling up. Steve looked at him for a few long moments, curiously melancholy, then sighed and went back over to the couch. He wanted to lie down, too, rest, but he felt like someone should be watching. 

He leaned back, looking around the room for something to do, but there didn’t seem to be much. He found some kind of screen, but he couldn’t figure out how to turn it on even after poking around it for a while, so he left it alone - besides, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know what kind of stuff they showed on TV on this planet.

Eventually he took a bath, trying to relax, and was only just getting out when there was a knock on the door. Steve glanced hurriedly toward Loki, who didn’t even twitch, and lunged for a bathrobe hanging in the closet. “Just a minute,” he said, hastily putting it on, and went over to the door, opening it just a crack. 

Steve blinked. “Hello?”

“Settling in well?” said the Grandmaster, with a dazzling smile. Steve tensed, managing not to glance over at Loki.

“Great, thanks,” he said, trying not to sound as stiff and unfriendly as he felt. The Grandmaster’s eyebrows twitched up slightly. 

“Good, that’s good. I wouldn’t normally just drop in like this, but, well, we don’t usually get such special visitors, and it seemed like - Loki? Loki, might’ve gotten a little overexcited.” 

Steve felt a spike of anger, remembering what Loki had said about what had been added to his drink. “He’s fine. Sleeping.” 

“Fantastic. That means we can talk, you and me. Didn’t get the chance earlier, he’s a little - hm, protective, eh?”

 _He’s not the only one,_ Steve thought, but he kept his face bland, waiting. The Grandmaster raised his eyebrows.

“You’re not going to make me stand out in the hallway, are you?” 

Steve wanted to. He didn’t like the idea of letting him in. But he suspected that refusing wasn’t really an option. He stepped back, and the Grandmaster walked in, eyes going briefly over to the bed before strolling over to sit on the couch. 

“I’m glad we can have this little chat. You’re very interesting, the two of you. Very interesting. A human and...you know, I don’t think your boyfriend said where he was from, did he? Must’ve forgotten to ask. Or he didn’t say. Both?” 

Steve stayed standing. “Vanaheim.” He suspected that the Grandmaster probably _did_ remember, though he didn’t know why he’d pretend otherwise.

“Doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter.” He looked Steve over again, that same assessing glance that made Steve’s skin crawl. “You really are very nice to look at. Do you hear that often?” Steve just stared at him, and the Grandmaster sighed. “Not much of a talker, hm? That can be fine, but it does make you a little boring. I don’t like boring.” 

“I bet,” Steve said, unable to quite keep his mouth shut. “As far as I can tell all that you do is entertain yourself.” 

He sat up and leaned forward with a grin. “That’s what we’re all about, here! Isn’t it fun? I do hope you’re having fun. If you’re not...well, there’s plenty of people to help with that. The two of you - you really need to relax, you know? Take it easy. You’re so _tense._ Like you. You’re all wound up, I can tell just looking at you. Do you ever, you know...let loose?” 

“Sure,” Steve said. The Grandmaster leaned back again and pressed his thumb lightly to his lower lip. 

“It’s really too bad,” he said, “that your boyfriend said no to putting you in the arena. My arena.”

“Your arena,” Steve echoed.

“Yep. Where the fights happen. It’s...really something. Drama, excitement, a little bit of murder...and you’d be great. Everybody loves an underdog.” There was nothing obvious about his tone that should be making Steve feel like he should be gearing up for a fight, but he felt it anyway. “But I like Loki. Good sense of humor. Great ass.” Steve pressed his lips together hard. “He’d probably be upset if I threw you in the mix, wouldn’t want that.” 

Steve wasn’t stupid. He hadn’t said it, but it was clear enough. Loki’s good behavior for Steve’s life. He could feel himself shaking with anger. “No,” he said after a moment. “I’m sure you don’t.”

The Grandmaster beamed. “But surely that won’t be a problem! Actually - I meant to tell Loki, but didn’t quite get to it before he took off, the flighty thing.” Steve clenched his jaw, itching to just go ahead and sock him one. But he was pretty sure that would be suicide. “There’s a fight tomorrow. You’ll come, right? Tell me you’ll come. ”

 _Do I have a choice,_ Steve thought dryly. “I guess we’d better,” he said neutrally. “See what all the fuss is about.” 

“Wonderful. Marvelous.” He stood up and came over, and for a moment Steve thought he was going to pat him on the shoulder. He didn’t think he’d be able to stop himself from lashing out if he did, but in the end he just smiled. “I’ll see you then. Both of you,” he said, and sauntered out. Steve took several deep breaths and looked over toward Loki. 

He was still fast asleep, breathing slow and deeply. Steve checked for a lock on the door. There wasn’t one. 

It was going to be a long night.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's that time again!
> 
> So I should probably just get this out of the way at the beginning so no one's too disappointed: there is no Hulk/Bruce Banner in this fic. I went back and forth on it, did some wrangling in my head, and ultimately decided that there just wasn't room for him here. 
> 
> He'll be back, but not right now. 
> 
> Anyway: huge thanks to everyone who's been reading and commenting (especially commenting) - we're coming up on the end of this fic fast (one more week, how did five weeks happen so quickly?) and I'm so pleased with the response to this fic. If you can't get enough of me here, I'm over on [Tumblr](http://veliseraptor.tumblr.com), where I post headcanons, meta, and sometimes fic (along with a whole bunch of other nonsense). 
> 
> Enjoy!

Loki woke up as light was just starting to return to the sky, and Steve realized that he had no idea how long days were on this planet. He heard Loki stir and got up quickly to see him put a hand over his eyes with a groan. 

“Norns,” he said, and then paused and said, sounding more nervous, “Steve?” 

“It’s me,” Steve said, going to get a glass of water and bringing it over. “Here. What do you remember?” 

“It’s...blurry.” Loki grimaced. “I haven’t been that drunk in... _centuries._ Stupid…”

“You had help,” Steve said darkly, but when Loki looked at him, frowning, he just shook his head and waited until he took the water. Loki started sipping at it, propped up on one elbow. Then he stopped, abruptly, lifting his head. 

“You found Thor,” he said. “He’s alive, you found him - and Sif?” Steve nodded, and Loki exhaled, sounding relieved all over again. “I...remember you talking about that. That’s...that’s _good._ ” He paused, looking at Steve’s face, and frowned again. “Or...isn’t it? You look…”

Steve looked away. “After you...fell asleep, the _Grandmaster_ came by. If I didn’t already have enough reasons to hate him…”

Loki pushed himself up to sitting, though his face went pale when he did it. “What did he do?” 

“Talked,” Steve said flatly. “A lot. I got the impression he knows more about why we’re here than he should. And he…” Steve hesitated, but Loki should know. “He threatened me. And you. Implied he’d just throw me in this arena of his if you don’t keep him happy.” Loki tensed, his nostrils flaring briefly. 

“Well then,” he said flatly. “I suppose I’ll just have to keep him happy. Right up until I stick a knife in his back and we leave this place. Soon.” He exhaled. “All this means is that - we need to accelerate things.” 

“Oh,” Steve said dryly, “and we’ve been invited to a round of the ‘games’ today. Which I’m betting will be a lot of fun.” Even just thinking about sitting through that experience made him feel ill. This planet was a hellhole, and he wasn’t sure how he was going to make it through this without losing his temper. 

Loki. Thor. And Sif, and everyone waiting for them back on Earth. And the fact that it’d be utterly futile besides. He took a deep breath through his nose. 

Loki was looking at him with transparent worry. “Steve,” he said carefully, “I can...try to make excuses for you to stay away.” 

He shook his head jerkily. “I’d still know it was happening. And I don’t think we can take the risk. We need to act like the perfect guests.” There was a sour taste in his mouth. “I’ll...deal with it.” He’d have to. Hopefully without throwing up. 

Loki moved to the edge of the bed, though he looked perilously close to vomiting himself. He bent over, and Steve could see him breathing slow and deeply. “This place is rotten,” he said quietly. “To the core. I’d burn it to the ground if I could.” 

“What…” Steve trailed off, wondering if he wanted to ask, and feeling like a coward for wondering. “What happened last night?”

“Nothing,” Loki said, his head jerking up. “I told you-”

“I don’t mean - like that,” Steve said quickly, though for just a half second he doubted Loki was telling the truth. But - no. He believed him. “I just mean…what did you learn?” 

“Precious little,” Loki said, after a moment. “He is...he acts like a bumbling fool, half the time, and then he turns and you can feel how dangerous he is, how quickly he could change his mind, kill you and think nothing of it. Just because he is bored, or irritated, or…” He exhaled through his nose. “I thought I knew what power looked like. But I think...he might be stronger than - anything else I’ve encountered. And because of that...it’s all a game, to him.” Loki closed his eyes. “I think the universe is lucky that he doesn’t care to involve himself in larger affairs, and is content to remain here, at the back-end of the universe in his own little playground.”

A chill went down Steve’s spine. “Yeah,” he said faintly. “I guess we are lucky.” Though it didn’t make him feel any better about the people who were stuck here. 

“As far as I can tell,” Loki said, “this place is full of portals. For the most part, though...no one leaves. People come in, but they don’t go out. It’s hard to say if that’s choice or just that those who come here tend to be those with nothing to come back to.”

“Or that they can’t get out,” Steve said. “Maybe the portals only go one way.” 

Loki’s lips pressed together. “That might be so. And if it is...it’s a good thing that we have our own way out.” 

“Yeah,” Steve said. “I guess it is.” He sat down next to Loki and put a hand on his back. “Is there anything we can - or should - do to get ready?”

“Unfortunately,” Loki said, “I think your shield needs to stay here. I’ll hide it so no one can see it and take it away, but having it visible...might be seen as a threat.” Steve nodded slowly. “As for the rest...I think I am going to shower.” He swallowed. “And possibly vomit.”

“Whatever he gave you,” Steve said, “it won’t have any...lasting side effects, will it?”

“No,” Loki said firmly. “It won’t. The worst of it my body has already purged. What’s left... this is just an ordinary hangover.” He grimaced. “I haven’t had one in...a long time. And I was never particularly good at it. Thor could tell you.” A flicker of a smile danced briefly around his lips. “You can ask him,” he said, something softer in his voice. Relief, Steve thought. 

They weren’t through this yet, but they had a direction. And they knew Thor was alive, and in one piece. 

They’d just have to make sure he stayed that way until they could get him out. Get him out, get Sif out, and if there was a way to free the rest of them…

Well, Steve would take that too.

Loki availed himself of the bath - though only after he kept his word about retching into the toilet. While Loki was lounging in the hot water, his head back, Steve watched the door. And tried not to watch Loki, as utterly unselfconscious as usual. 

A servant brought a tray loaded with food, including a decanter of what looked like juice of some kind. “Thank you,” Steve said to her, trying a smile, but she just ducked her head and hurried out without responding. Steve sighed, but Loki didn’t seem surprised. 

“Don’t touch anything until I test it,” Loki called from the bath, and Steve nodded. 

“I figured that would probably be a good idea.” 

Loki gave the food his stamp of approval, though, and Steve ate with relief. Loki pressed a glass of the cold juice to his forehead before drinking it, his expression still pinched a little tight. 

“Are you going to be okay?” Steve asked. Loki gave him a surprised look.

“I’ve managed through worse than this.” 

“That isn’t exactly reassuring,” Steve told him. Loki half smiled and poured himself another glass of the juice. 

“No, I suppose not.” He exhaled quietly. “It isn’t so bad. Uncomfortable, yes. But I had worse when I was young and stupid.” He snorted a little. “The first time Thor and I stole a bottle of liquor and drank the whole thing...Norns. I think the only reason Frigga wasn’t angrier was because she thought the hangover punishment enough.” Steve saw the moment when Loki remembered, again, that Frigga was missing, maybe dead. The brief flash of pain before his expression closed off. 

“Probably,” Steve said after a moment. “My ma said the same thing when Bucky and I got drunk off a bottle of cheap whiskey.” 

Loki’s lips curved in a faint, brief smile. “A universal experience?” He said wryly, and then visibly shook himself. Steve could almost see him shaking off memories, refocusing. 

He debated saying something - pushing Loki to stop ignoring what he was trying to stave off - but he understood the impulse. When you were in the middle of a mission, stopping could just put everyone in danger. Sometimes all you could do was deal with it later. 

Right now it was more important that they kept going, and got out of here safely. Then...then there would be plenty to talk about. 

* * *

At some point - Steve wasn’t entirely sure what time it was, as his phone seemed to have stopped working - someone (Steve couldn’t have said whether they were a guard or servant) arrived to escort them to the Grandmaster’s ‘games.’

He was there when they arrived, already sitting on a long white couch, alone - though there were a cluster of people standing a little ways back, and the roar of the crowd beyond almost knocked Steve back a step. He could feel eyes on him and Loki and tried to pretend that he couldn’t, focusing his attention on the Grandmaster, who twisted around to look at them and beamed. 

“Oh, hello!” He said, as though surprised. “There you are - just in time. I thought you were going to be late - or weren’t coming, that would’ve been such a shame. Wouldn’t it, Topaz?” 

The woman standing to his right - Topaz, presumably - said, “I guess it might be.”

The Grandmaster laughed and gestured them over. “C’mere - best view in the house. Obviously. I mean, it’s _my_ arena.” Steve thought the man’s eyes might’ve lingered on him for just a moment too long, but then he turned away, facing front. Steve followed Loki over, glancing briefly out at the sea of people, looking down to the arena itself. Surrounded by high walls, filled with some kind of sand, and Steve could see two gigantic metal doors facing each other. Where the fighters came out, he supposed. 

“Impressive, isn’t it?” The Grandmaster said. Steve turned to look at him, head tilted, still smiling. “It’s really - my pride and joy. Well, one of them. This whole planet is, really.” 

_This whole rotten planet,_ Steve thought angrily, but he tried to make himself smile. “It’s really something,” he said. Loki’s hand landed lightly on Steve’s arm and gave him a light tug to bring him over to the couch, placing Steve on the far end from the Grandmaster. 

“It is,” Loki said smoothly. “You built it yourself?” 

“I did,” the Grandmaster said. “Well - had it built. Close enough, right? But enough chit-chat. Let’s get on with it, shall we?” He stood up in a swirl of robes and brought his hands together, stepping forward toward the balcony. 

An enormous gold hologram of him shimmered into being over the arena. Steve tuned it out, leaning a little toward Loki. 

“What are we doing here?” He asked. 

“Watching,” Loki said quietly. “At the moment...that’s the best thing we can do. Watch, and trust that Thor and Sif can take care of themselves for today.”

Steve sat back, trying not to clench his jaw. He knew it was true - knew that trying to rush could be just as bad, if not worse, than holding back. That they needed a _plan_ before acting. It still made him feel like punching someone, and the person he really wanted to punch...he couldn’t. 

He sat back, folding his hands between his knees to keep them still. The Grandmaster returned a moment later, casting them both an indulgent smile. 

“Take it easy,” he said. “Want something to drink?” He didn’t wait for an answer, gesturing someone over. “A Shi’ar Warbird and a Sex on Sakaar, I’m going to say...on the rocks and straight up? No, don’t tell me, let’s see if I’m right.” 

Steve doubted that he wanted either, but he tried to offer a smile to the server who brought over a tray with two drinks on it, both luridly colored, one with a series of small alien fruits speared on a small yellow spike. Almost like a cocktail that might show up at a fancy bar in Manhattan. 

Except he was a long way from Manhattan, and he remembered what Loki had said about the...additive in his drink from the night before. He eyed the glass in his hand, trying not to look suspicious. 

Fortunately, the Grandmaster seemed distracted, leaning forward as one set of doors rolled open. Steve tried not to look too closely at the alien who stepped out. 

“We start with the low-level fighters,” the Grandmaster said. “Build up to the main events. It’s better that way, more anticipation - this has all been the work of a couple millennia, you understand, really - _perfecting_ the system.”

Steve pretended to take a sip of his drink that he hoped covered the twist of his mouth. 

“Such dedication,” Loki said. 

“Everyone needs a passion project,” the Grandmaster said modestly. “I’m a very...ah, _dedicated_ sort of person.” Loki laughed, and Steve could only just hear the edge in it.

How did Loki _do_ this? It’d always awed him with Natasha, too, how seamlessly she could melt into almost any role, but Loki...Steve thought of Loki as always so much _himself,_ larger than life. Seeing him don a completely different mask so seamlessly was almost eerie. 

The crowd was roaring. Steve glanced down and almost wished he hadn’t. “Ooh, ouch,” the Grandmaster said, sounding positively gleeful. Steve dug his fingers into his leg, and Loki reached over and laid his hand on top of Steve’s. He forced his hand to relax, though his chest still felt tight. 

_Don’t think. Just - don’t think._ He’d seen a lot of horrible things during the war. He’d never stopped being horrified, but he’d managed to soldier through that. He could do this. (Except then he’d been _helping,_ and now…)

He conjured up as strong an image as he could of smashing his shield into the Grandmaster’s face several times. It was only sort of satisfying. And still pointless.

“Don’t worry,” the Grandmaster was saying. “Not all the matches will be that short.”

_No_ , Steve thought. He couldn’t take this. He had to find a way, somehow, to make this end.

Steve remembered on Asgard holding back from the hunt, not wanting to watch the end of it, the pointless blood and death.

This was so much worse.

At least there it had just been an animal. This was - sentient beings fighting to the death, none of whom had chosen to be here. He couldn’t smell the blood, not from this high up, but that just made it worse - he had the feeling that was intentional. He glanced at Loki, but he seemed relaxed, lounging back on the couch. 

“So,” the Grandmaster said. “Tell me more about, um…” He snapped his fingers and pointed at Steve. “Where were you from again?” 

_No,_ Steve thought, but he forced a smile and said, “it’s...kind of a backwater, really.” Inspired, he added, “nothing compared to here.” 

“Oooh,” the Grandmaster said, “nice. Very smooth.” He waggled his eyebrows at Loki, and then looked back at Steve with that expression that was somehow both unnervingly sharp and disarmingly affable. “And Loki here, he just - swept you away?” 

“Yeah,” Steve said. “Something like that.” 

“Something like?” The Grandmaster cocked his head to the side. “Were you the one doing the sweeping?”

Loki squeezed Steve’s leg slightly and said, “It was fairly mutual.”

The Grandmaster looked like he was about to say something, but then his attention turned back to the arena. “Oh,” he said. “You should watch this one. New arrival, a real favorite with the crowds already. I think he’s going to last a good, long time.” 

“Oh?” Loki said, sitting a little forward. Steve tensed; there was something in the Grandmaster’s tone that he didn’t like - liked even less. 

One of the doors rolled open and it was all Steve could do not to suck in a breath as Thor stepped out. 

_He knows,_ Steve thought. _Somehow he knows. He’s going to have Thor killed while we watch-_

He gave Loki a panicked look but Loki was just leaning forward slightly, his eyebrows furrowed. “Who is he?” 

“Calls himself the _Lord of Thunder,_ ” the Grandmaster said, putting air-quotes around the name. “Did some interesting sort of - sparkles, with his hands, though he hasn’t pulled _that_ out since. Sure is a fighter, though. _Woof._ See, just, watch-” He pointed, and Steve made himself look. 

The alien Thor was fighting was at least twice his size and looked something like a rhinoceros. 

_It’s Thor,_ Steve told himself. _Thor can handle himself,_ but just as he thought it, the other alien swung some kind of club at Thor and knocked him back, then raised it over its head. He saw Loki twitch out of the corner of his eye, but Thor rolled under the blow and drove one of his swords up into his opponent’s side. 

_Swords,_ Steve thought distantly. It was strange to see Thor fighting with something other than his hammer. But if Sif had been wrong about Thor... it looked like she hadn’t been wrong about Mjolnir. 

He snuck a sidelong glance at Loki as Thor yanked the blade out and backed up, circling around. Loki was leaning forward, elbow on his knees with his knuckles to his mouth as though focused intently on the match. Steve couldn’t make out anything the crowd was shouting.

Thor won the fight. Steve tried not to look too closely at his opponent, tried to tell himself maybe he wasn’t dead, reminded himself that Thor didn’t have a _choice._

He was going to be sick. 

As if Loki heard him, he turned, drawing Steve in for a very soft kiss and a murmur of, “I’m sorry.”

_You don’t need to apologize,_ Steve would have said, but Loki sat up and turned to the Grandmaster. “He must be the best of your fighters,” he said. 

“For the moment,” the Grandmaster said, and if he was smiling Steve saw his eyes move past Loki to Steve, lingering on him. “But I’m always keeping an eye out for new and interesting...specimens. You never know what might turn up on Sakaar.” 

“The universe is full of surprises,” Loki said, not quite a purr, and Steve looked away, staring at one of the curtains and hoping he looked like he was admiring it. 

“Sir,” he heard. “Scrapper-142 is here.”

“Ooh,” the Grandmaster said. “Did she bring me something new?” 

“Not today,” said a voice that sounded vaguely familiar to Steve. He turned around to see a woman strolling in with a gait somewhere between a swagger and a drunken sway. There were lines of white paint - tattoos? - under her eyes and above her eyebrows, bright against brown skin. “Just letting you know that the credit transfer hasn’t gone through.”

The Grandmaster stood up, beaming, spreading his arms. “That’s all? You didn’t come to see me?” 

“Just the credits,” she said, but half smiled. Loki, Steve noticed, was staring at her intently, eyes narrowed. 

“All right, all right, twist my arm.” The Grandmaster chuckled, sounding disarmingly good-natured. “I’ll make sure it happens. But _only_ if you come to the party tomorrow night. I _insist._ ” 

“You keep your friends from getting familiar,” the woman - Scrapper-142 was _not_ her name, Steve was fairly sure - “and I’ll come for the alcohol. Any of them lay a finger on me and I’m going to start taking hands.” 

The Grandmaster smiled fondly. “Absolutely,” he said. He glanced at Loki and Steve, seeming surprised to see them still there. “What are you waiting for? Go on, go explore. I don’t expect you to hang on my _every_ word. Just most of them.” 

Loki’s eyes lingered on the woman for a moment longer before he stood and took Steve’s arm with a smile. “Easy enough to do,” he said, with a smile in the Grandmaster’s direction. “Steve...shall we?”

Steve followed, glad that he didn’t seem to need to contribute any commentary. They exited the box and turned to the right, only for Loki to spin abruptly and push Steve up against the wall, body pressed to his and lips hovering just over Steve’s. He tensed, eyes widening.

“Loki,” he started to say, a little strangled. 

“The woman,” Loki said. “‘Scrapper-142.’ She’s Aesir, and possibly…” He blew out a breath. “There are legends of great warriors - the Valkyrior. An elite cadre of warriors who fought for the royal line of Asgard. They all vanished a long time ago - but I think I caught a tattoo on one of her arms. I don’t know what she’s doing here, alone, but if she’s stranded here...she might help.” 

“I think I heard her talking to Sif,” Steve said, realizing what Loki was doing and raising a hand awkwardly to the back of his neck. “She didn’t seem inclined to help.”

“Sif isn’t very convincing,” Loki said. “You are.” He pulled back, and Steve saw the woman walking out. Loki gave him a little push. “Follow her. _Talk_ to her. At the very least see if you can find out what she knows.” 

“I’m not a spy,” Steve protested. Loki half-smiled at him. 

“You don’t need to be. Snap your fingers when you want to be visible again,” he said. “Until then - anyone not looking for you will ignore you.” 

Steve blinked, and then smiled a little. “Handy,” he said. 

“And if anything looks like trouble,” Loki said, not smiling, “run for it.”

Steve’s stomach clenched nervously, but he nodded. “What are you going to do?” 

“Research,” Loki said. “I need to know how those disks work. And how to remove them.” 

Steve nodded. “I’ll see you soon,” he said, squaring his shoulders and setting off down the hall in the direction the woman - the Valkyrie, maybe - had gone. 

It was a little strange, walking through hallways that, if not crowded, weren’t empty, and having people look right past him. Initially he was nervous that he’d run into them by accident, but they seemed to move around him without even realizing that they were doing so. Steve wasn’t sure he liked the feeling of it, though he thought idly that Natasha would probably be insanely jealous of this ability. 

He wondered where she was. Hoped she was safe. 

At first Steve thought he might have lost her, but she was walking slowly and after a little while he saw her ahead of him. He slowed down, hanging back - even if she couldn’t see him, he didn’t want to try his luck. 

To his surprise, she didn’t head for the tower. She walked out into the streets instead, and Steve had to move a little closer to make sure he didn’t lose her in the crowd. Once he thought he saw her pause and glance back over her shoulder, but then she kept moving, eventually stopping at a ramshackle looking building and going inside. Steve hesitated in front of it. 

A moment later her head poked back out and she said loudly, “whoever’s following me, cut it the fuck out.” 

Steve started a little, then sighed and snapped his fingers. Her eyes fixed on him immediately, and narrowed. 

“I recognize you,” she said. “You were sitting with Gast and his new boy toy.” 

It was all Steve could do to keep from bristling. “I was sitting there,” he said after a moment. Her eyebrows rose slightly and then dropped. “I need to talk to you.” 

“Are you going to pay me?” She asked. Steve blinked at her, and she turned around. “Then I’m not interested.” 

“Wait,” Steve started to say, but she’d already gone back inside, the door banging closed behind her. Steve pressed his lips together, inhaled, and opened it. 

It wasn’t a house. By the looks of it, it was some kind of alien bar - an alien _dive,_ more accurately. She was sitting at a table in the corner, elbows propped on it and chugging what Steve suspected wasn’t just a bottle of beer. 

He walked briskly over and sat down. 

“I told you I’m not interested,” she said. Steve lifted his chin. 

“You don’t even know what I want.” 

“I don’t care.” She slammed down the now empty bottle - more of a jug than a bottle, really, and looked at him. 

Steve sat back, mentally digging in his heels. “Is it true that you’re one of the - Valkyrior?” 

She didn’t jerk, or freeze, but her expression hardened. “Where’d you hear that name?” 

“Loki,” Steve said simply. He suspected Loki wouldn’t want her to know that, but he thought straightforward was probably his best bet here. “The one you called a ‘boy toy,’” he added, when she just looked at him blankly. 

She leaned back. “You can tell him that the Valkyrior are all dead.” She got up. “I’m getting another drink. Don’t be here when I get back.”

Steve stayed where he was. She came back holding another bottle. “ _Were_ you a Valkyrie?” He asked, pressing. She stared at him. 

“I told you,” she said, something a little more vicious in her voice. “The Valkyries are all dead. This is Sakaar. No past, no future.” She raised the bottle toward him and drank half of it without pausing. “You’d do well to learn that.” She rubbed the back of her hand across her mouth. 

“You survived,” Steve said quietly. For a second he thought she was going to punch him, and then she leaned back and shrugged. 

“So what? Are you going to chew me out like that _other_ one who popped up yesterday? About how I’m shirking my responsibility? I don’t _have_ a responsibility.” She leaned forward, elbows on the table. “You want me to put it clearer? Fuck Asgard. Fuck Odin. Fuck the Aesir. End of story.” 

Steve didn’t move. “Asgard’s been decimated and Odin’s dead.” 

“So?” 

Steve stiffened. “Whatever grudge you have-”

“ _Grudge,_ ” she said. “That old bastard ordered me and all my sisters into battle against _his_ bitch of a daughter. They died. Every single one. And now, apparently, she’s back?” She turned her head and spat. “I’m not going to throw myself on her sword because Odin didn’t have the guts to finish her off.”

Steve felt a bitter pang. “Then you’re letting their deaths just be - meaningless. Pointless.” 

“Yeah,” she said. “I am.” She fixed him with a hard stare. “Death always is.”

Anger rose up in Steve’s chest and throat, but a moment later it ebbed away. Hadn’t he thought the same thing, when he’d woken up and found out what had happened while he’d been frozen? _What was it worth,_ he remembered thinking, staring at the photos of the destruction left behind by the bomb that had ended the war he’d believed in. _What was all that death worth?_

“I know,” he said quietly. She narrowed her eyes, and he shrugged. “You’re not the only one who’s lost - people. I was in a war, a while back, on my - on Midgard. Probably small by your standards, but pretty big by ours. A lot of people died. A lot more were - wrecked. It ended up...well.” He looked down at his hands, trying not to fidget. “I’m the only one left, now.” 

Her face was hard and impassive. 

“I can’t say I know exactly what it’s like for you,” he said, “but I remember how it felt - feels - to wonder why you made it out. Why you survived, when other people who _should’ve,_ didn’t. It eats you up.”

She just kept staring at him. Steve leaned forward and put his elbows on the table. 

“If you really didn’t care anymore,” he said, “if you were _happy_ staying here - you wouldn’t be in here trying to burn out your brain by drinking.” He paused. “We need your help.”

“Who’s ‘we’?”

“Me and Loki,” Steve said. “The woman who...chewed you out. And Thor.” 

“Thor,” she said. “His Highness. Yeah, I remember him.” She fixed her eyes on Steve. “I brought him in. Sold him to Gast for a nice pile of money.”

Steve felt his mouth tighten and made himself relax. He found himself remembering Loki, in the early days, deliberately trying to provoke him. “And now you can help us free him.”

The Valkyrie drummed her fingers on the table. “You done?” She said, finally. Steve looked away, disappointed. 

“I guess I am,” he said. “But I hope you’ll think about it.”

She stood up. “You’re lucky I’m not going to bring this whole conversation to the Grandmaster,” she said. “I’m going to choose to forget about it. And you. I’m leaving, and if you follow me I’ll break your kneecaps.” 

Steve didn’t call after her. He waited for a few minutes, then left to head back to the tower, and Loki.

* * *

Steve went back to the room, realizing belatedly that he didn’t know where Loki was doing his ‘research.’ He ended up waiting there for maybe an hour on his own, and managed to figure out the screen, but poking around it just produced a lot of what looked like shameless propaganda about the Grandmaster. He finally settled on some kind of alien soap, though he couldn’t understand much of what was going on. Maybe you needed to have seen the first thirty seasons. 

He turned it off, swiveling around and tensing when he heard the door open. It was just Loki, though he looked tired and there was a distinct worry line between his eyebrows. He looked at Steve and grimaced.

“I take it you didn’t have much luck.” 

Steve shook his head. “You were right. She’s - or she _was_ \- a Valkyrie, but apparently Hela killed the rest of them and she’s not keen on getting involved. I don’t think we can expect anything from her.”

Loki sighed. “I was hoping for good news.”

“Why,” Steve said, his stomach sinking. “What’s yours?” 

Loki rubbed his hand against his mouth. “I suspect the Grandmaster knows what we’re doing.” Steve jerked, sitting sharply upright, and Loki shook his head. “He doesn’t care, yet. I think he’s just watching, at the moment, to see what we do next. But it means we have to act faster than I was planning - which is not even taking into consideration the fact that Thor could be killed any day. Even if he doesn’t meet his match...I don’t think our host is above cheating to determine the outcome he wants.”

“Can we get them out?” Steve asked tightly. “Thor and Sif. Can you get the obedience discs off them?” 

“That’s the good news,” Loki said, with a very faint, crooked smile. He held something up between two fingers. “I did manage to obtain one to examine its makeup. How it works. It’s - rather simple, ultimately. Elegant. Hideously so.” 

“But you can remove one,” Steve said. 

“I can. Or at least, I think so. It’s hard to be certain until I actually try on one that’s working.”

Steve hesitated, thinking of all the others. “Loki...we can’t leave the people here helpless. Enslaved.”

Loki’s smile was crooked and mostly humorless. “I know.”

Steve’s shoulders slumped in relief. “So how do we free them? Is there some kind of master controller?” 

“I’m working on it.” Loki’s fingers drummed on his leg. “But we need to move. Preferably now. I was hoping for help, but if she refused - all the more reason to get out of here before she decides to sell us out for drinking money.” 

Steve wanted to say _I don’t think she’d do that,_ but he didn’t really know, did he? And either way, as far as Steve was concerned the sooner they could get out of this hellhole the better. 

“What’s the plan?” He asked. 

“Go down, get Thor,” Loki said. “Get Sif, use Jane’s Bifrost to get away.”

Steve’s eyebrows shot up. “Sounds...simple.” 

“Making it too complicated just gives it more chances to go wrong,” Loki said. Steve raised his eyebrows, and Loki huffed. “We don’t have _time._ It’s not my preference, but - we can’t take the time to finesse too much. We’ll be moving quietly. Armed and ready for a fight if necessary. But mostly we want to be fast.”

Steve nodded. “Got it,” he said simply. 

“Then get ready,” Loki said. “I’m going to set up an illusion of the two of us in here. I don’t think it’ll hold forever - maybe not even for long. But at least it’ll provide some misdirection.” Loki’s clothes shimmered and changed from the more Sakaaran style back into his more usual leather, and Steve watched him equip a number of knives before shaking himself and turning to his own preparations. He changed back into his uniform, leaving the other clothes on the floor and strapping his shield back on. Rolling his shoulders to try to loosen them. 

“I didn’t ask,” Loki said, turning to face him. “Where did that come from?” 

“A gift,” Steve said. “From T’Challa.”

“Unadorned,” Loki said. Steve shrugged. 

“I don’t know what I want to put on it, yet.”

Loki’s lips quirked. “You could always put a pair of horns,” he said, fingers flicking to form the shape of his distinctive helm. Steve dropped his head with a faint smile, and Loki held out a hand. “Shall we?” 

Steve took it, and gasped a little when he felt the world fold. He didn’t stumble, though, just looked around in surprise at the hallways of the barracks. 

“Do you know where he is?” Loki asked, looking back and forth. Steve shook his head. 

“It all looks the same to me.” 

“Hm,” Loki said, his eyes narrowing.

“Should we find a guard and ask?” Steve asked. “Or can you use the same magic you used to bring us here?”

“It isn’t that precise,” Loki said. He started down the hall in one direction. “I think the idea about a guard might be…” 

He paused, and then cocked his head back and whistled something that sounded almost like the call of a bird. He moved forward a few steps and did it again. 

“What was that?” Steve heard behind them. He turned, bracing himself.

“Probably nothing,” said another voice. “That one - whatever he is, he sings to himself sometimes. Might’ve been that.” 

“That guy died yesterday.” 

“Oh, yeah. Right.” 

They were moving closer. Steve pressed against the wall but Loki was standing in the hallway, his back to them. Steve heard their footsteps stop abruptly. 

“Hey!” One said. “Who’re you?” 

Loki turned. “I was actually looking for directions,” he said smoothly. “I don’t suppose you could direct me to Thor, Lord of Thunder?”

One of the guards came into view, weapon leveled in Loki’s direction. “I don’t think you belong here.” 

“Is that a ‘no’ on the directions, then?” Loki asked innocently. His eyes flicked to Steve. The guard approaching him looked with him.

Steve lunged, slamming his shield into the guard’s face and then dropping down to sweep his legs out from under him - ducking under the blast the other guard fired in his direction. Steve saw him fumbling for something and said, sharply, “Loki!” but Loki had already twisted his arm up behind him and slammed him into the floor, a knife to his throat. Steve held down the guard he had pinned, who looked half-concussed. 

“So,” Loki said, his voice a faintly malevolent purr. “Directions?” 

“Kill him,” Loki’s prisoner gasped. “Not me!”

Loki looked at Steve and raised an eyebrow. “What do you think?” 

“I think it’s up to you,” Steve said. The guard he was holding down squirmed. 

“Second hallway on the left, third door,” he said breathlessly. Steve glanced at Loki, who looked down again. 

“Is that true?”

On a fervent nod, Loki pressed two fingers to the back of his neck. The guard’s eyes rolled back in his head and he went limp. Loki stood up, rolling back his shoulders. 

“Don’t,” the other guard said weakly. Loki raised his eyebrows. 

“Would you rather a brain hemorrhage?” He asked. “Because Steve can make that happen for you.” Steve tried not to wince, but Loki didn’t wait before doing the same magic, knocking the guard out with a touch. 

Steve stood up. “That was almost worryingly easy.”

“I’d wager the Grandmaster doesn’t want anyone terribly competent in positions of even moderate power,” Loki said. “And relies more on force of will than anything too overt to maintain control.” He started down the hallway. “From Thor, can you find your way to Sif?” 

Steve went back in his memories, tracing his steps, and nodded. “I think so.”

They turned down the second hallway on the left, and Loki knocked on the third door twice. 

“Who’s there?” Came Thor’s voice. 

“Me,” Loki said. “And Steve.” He heard the sharp intake of Thor’s breathing. 

“I’m locked in,” he said after a moment. “A new addition. Can you-”

Loki pressed his palm to the door and murmured something under his breath, then pulled back, grabbed the door, and yanked. 

Steve hadn’t heard frozen metal shatter before, but he guessed it would probably sound something like that. The door opened and Loki hadn’t even stepped inside before Thor was on him, nearly lifting him off his feet and crushing Loki to his chest. Steve couldn’t help a smile. 

“Thor,” he heard Loki say, but it didn’t sound like protest. Sounded a little wobbly, really. “ _Thor._ Norns, you - _ah, my ribs -_ we need to-”

But he wasn’t moving to let go, either. 

“Loki,” Thor said, finally pulling back and gripping his shoulders what looked like uncomfortably tightly. “You have no idea how good it is to see you.” 

“Perhaps some idea,” Loki said, with a very faint smile. “But we - can’t take the time to catch up right now. We need to get out of here.”

Thor turned his head and gestured at his neck, expression darkening. “I’m not going to get very far with this on.”

“Hold still,” Loki said. “Did you think I hadn’t thought of that?” 

Steve glanced up and down the hallway, listening for more guards. He heard a sharp snap and a yelp, and when he turned sharply around Thor was rubbing his neck with one hand. Loki eyed the disc in his hand and pocketed it.

“What are you doing?” Steve asked. 

“Just in case,” Loki said, with a quick, sharp smile. “Shall we to the Lady Sif?” 

“We’d better,” Steve said tensely. “It can’t be that long before someone finds those two guards we ran into.” 

Thor rolled his shoulders back. “Personally, I wouldn’t mind running into a couple of guards.”

“We’re trying for stealth,” Loki said. “Though admittedly it’s probably late for that.” His voice was dry, but Steve could almost feel how much _lighter_ he seemed - the relief radiating off him. They might not be out of danger, but just _seeing_ Thor had lifted a weight off Loki’s shoulders that he’d been carrying ever since Sif had told them that Thor was dead. 

“Let’s move,” he said. “Sif’s not far from here.”

“Lead on,” Loki said. “You know best where she is.”

Steve set off in the direction he remembered Sif being. He could almost feel Thor humming with barely restrained energy.

“There,” he said, indicating the room he remembered holding Sif, and Thor sped up, striding over to it. 

“Sif,” he said. 

“ _Thor,_ ” Sif said. “Is that you?” 

Thor looked like he was about to wrench the door open, but Loki moved first. “Quietly,” he said, and pressed his hand to the door. This time Steve saw ice spread out from under his fingers, the brief creep of blue across his skin before he pulled away and gestured to Thor. “Do you want to do the honors?” 

Thor smiled, a little grim, though Steve noticed that his eyes lingered briefly on Loki’s hand. “Gladly,” he said. He didn’t touch the metal, just shoved. 

Sif came exploding out like a racehorse when the gates opened, almost crashing into Thor. Her face lit up. “My prince,” she said, and then, “ _Thor,_ ” and grabbed him, dragging him into a hug that looked about as rib-crushing as one of Thor’s. “I thought you were dead - I was certain I saw - _Norns,_ Thor, I’m sorry-”

“No,” Thor said. “No apologies, Sif. I won’t accept them.” 

“But I should have-” 

“Recriminations can wait, I think,” Loki said, his voice a little tighter. “Better to get above ground and get away from this place now. Jane’s Bifrost will take us back to Midgard-”

Thor turned, staring at Loki. “Back to Midgard? What of Asgard, Loki?” 

Loki gave him an incredulous look and Steve startled a little. “Asgard? Wasn’t it...destroyed? Sif made it sound like…”

“No,” Thor said. “Not destroyed. Greatly wounded, yes - Hela’s reaction to resistance was...harsh. But it isn’t gone, and our people need our help.” 

Loki was shaking his head. “Thor - how do you know there is anything left? How long has it been?”

Thor shook his head. “I will not give Asgard up for lost.”

“You barely survived your last encounter with Hela,” Loki shot back. “And now you want to throw yourself into another one? Thor, I will not-”

Thor’s expression turned mulish. “Would you truly turn your back on your home?” 

“Thor’s right,” Sif said. “We have to go to Asgard. If there is any chance that we can help, that we can save any of her people - we must.” 

“Besides,” Thor said. “There is - something more. A reason why Hela is our responsibility. She is - our sister.” 

Loki froze. For a beat. Sif’s eyes widened, but she seemed struck dumb. “Our sister,” Loki said faintly. Thor nodded. 

“Our father’s eldest daughter,” he said. 

“Your father,” Loki corrected, though it sounded weak, and Thor ignored it. 

“Long before...a long time ago, she fought at his side. As conquerors of the Nine Realms. When he set war aside, Odin locked her away.” 

Loki’s expression twisted slightly. “Of course he did.” He shook himself. “So. Our sister.” He laughed, sharp and hard. “What a _remarkably_ functional family is the House of Odin.”

Thor’s expression spasmed. “Do not make light of this-”

“I don’t,” Loki said. “But regardless of her relation-” His voice hitched, belying that dismissal, but he pressed on. “Attacking her directly is still _folly._ And - Steve,” Loki said, turning to him with something faintly desperate on his face. “You must see the stupidity of this. Plunging into a fight, the three of us alone, against an enemy whose abilities we barely understand and who has doubtless only grown in strength on Asgard, where she has access to artifacts of immense power-”

Steve hesitated. It was true. Loki was right: the three of them alone against Hela...it was reckless. Impossibly dangerous. At the same time...leaving Asgard on its own didn’t sit right with him. If they’d done more - tried harder to reach Thor - maybe this wouldn’t have happened. Maybe they could’ve helped sooner. “I don’t know,” he said slowly. “Maybe there’s...if we went back to Earth and got the others…”

“There’s no time,” Thor said. “As Loki said - it’s already been long enough. If we delay longer…”

“And how would we get there?” Loki went on. “Jane’s Bifrost only transports us to one location. We can’t use it to reach Asgard.” 

“One of the portals must surely go there,” Sif said. “If we claimed a ship…”

“No,” Loki said. “ _No._ I cannot agree to this. So help me, if you try - I will drag you back to Earth if I must.”

“Loki,” Steve said. Sif stiffened. 

“Coward,” she accused. Loki bared his teeth.

“A living one.” 

“Well, look who it is,” said a dry voice behind Steve. “The whole team in one place.” 

Steve whirled around, and Loki’s knives appeared in his hands. The Valkyrie was standing in the middle of the hallway, nonchalant and almost bored. Out of the corner of his eye Steve saw Sif reach for a sword and almost growl. 

“You try stabbing me,” the Valkyrie said, glancing at Loki, “and I’m going to stab back. I’m not here to turn you in.” 

A small sprig of hope sprouted in Steve’s chest. “Then what are you here for?” Sif asked aggressively.

“Good question.” She tapped her foot on the floor and jerked her head in Steve’s direction. “You can thank him for reminding me what matters.” She grinned, and it looked a little feral. “That it’d be worth dying if it means killing the shit out of Odin’s bitch daughter.”

That wasn’t exactly what Steve had meant. Loki’s lips twitched slightly like he was trying not to smile, though he hadn’t lowered his knives. “Who said that was what we were going to do?” 

“He did,” she said, gesturing at Thor. “Well. Not in so many words. But I assumed that was the end goal. And I just happen to know where we can get a ship.” 

Thor looked triumphant when he turned to Steve and Loki. “Well?” He said. Loki’s expression was still hard. 

“If there’s any chance we can save people,” Steve said quietly, “I think we should go. It’d also mean…” He took a deep breath. “You said Hela might find a way to come for Earth. If we can somehow stop her before that happens…”

Loki gave him an anguished look. “And if we can’t?” He said. “Then we will have sacrificed ourselves for nothing.” 

Steve just looked at him, lips twisting up a little at the corner. “And if we let her go - if we don’t try at all - then not only will more people die on Asgard, more _innocents,_ then we’re risking everyone on Earth, too.” 

Loki looked away. “I am outvoted, it seems,” he said. “But even with a ship - how are we supposed to know which portal to take back to Asgard? Or does our former Valkyrie know that, too?” There was something faintly biting in his tone, and though Steve frowned at him Loki either didn’t notice or pretended not to. 

“I’m not your anything,” she said. “And yeah, as it so happens, I do. It’s the biggest one here. Figures. Asgard _would_ be the one dumping all its trash somewhere else.” Thor winced, and Sif looked like she wanted to protest; Steve wondered if she knew what Thor had told him. He guessed probably not. “But while we’re standing here arguing, I feel like I should point out that any minute now the Grandmaster’s going to notice something, if he hasn’t already, so…”

“Wait,” Steve said. “We can’t just leave, not without - doing something about the state of this planet. All these people suffering, _dying-_ ” 

Thor looked guilty, and uncertain, but Steve caught a flicker of a crooked smile on Loki’s face. 

“I told you I was working on it,” he said quietly. Steve blinked at him. “There’s always a resistance somewhere. We can’t run the revolution. But I thought at least I could give them a little help.” He glanced toward the tower. “Besides...it’ll make a rather effective distraction. This way, it’s less likely that our absence will be noted.”

“Loki,” Steve said, and left it at that, giving him a soft, warm smile. 

“Right,” Valkyrie said after a moment. “Should we be going now? You’re giving me a chance to change my mind.”

Sif gave her a look of pure disgust.

“You haven’t told us your name,” Steve said. She looked at him, an odd expression crossing her face. 

“Valkyrie is good enough,” she said. “It’s not like there’s any other ones to get me mixed up with.” Steve felt a faint pang in his chest. 

“Let’s go,” Thor said firmly. “We’ve wasted enough time that Asgard doesn’t have.”

* * *

Steve wasn’t entirely sure how they made it out without getting shot out of the sky. He supposed Valkyrie’s flying skills - no matter how much they felt like a cross between a Coney Island roller coaster and a New York taxicab - had something to do with it. 

As far as traveling through a wormhole in a ship, Steve didn’t think he ever wanted to do it again.

They shot out into clear space, though, and Steve could see Sif straining forward like she could will the ship to go more quickly - and ahead of them, floating in space, Asgard itself. 

Still there, at least. Not...obliterated. Maybe there was still hope. 

Thor and Loki had been talking lowly to each other, Loki’s expression tightening more and more. They parted abruptly, Loki jerking to his feet.

“Has anyone considered,” he said, “what we do if there is nothing left to save? If our _sister_ dearest has burned everything to the ground that would not submit to her?” 

Sif shot him a sharp, angry look. “Why do you insist on expecting the worst?” She asked. 

“Because usually that’s what I get,” Loki said. Steve reached out to take his hand and squeeze. 

“It’s good to think about,” he said. “Having a plan B.”

“Doesn’t change anything about my mission,” Valkyrie said. Thor looked down. 

“If there is truly...if Asgard is lost,” he said, and if his voice didn’t tremble Steve could hear the heartache in it. “Then - our sole duty is indeed to take vengeance. Hela will not be content to stop at Asgard. She _will_ find a way to reach the other Realms.” 

Asgard was drawing closer, and looking at it...Steve couldn’t see much damage. It looked almost strangely intact, hanging silent and still in the middle of space. He remembered how grand it had seemed when he’d first come; it looked so small, now. 

“Shit,” Valkyrie said, almost a whisper. 

“What?” Steve asked, alarmed. 

“Just - strange to be back here again.” She shook herself. “Right. I’m guessing we’re heading for the palace? Her Highness has probably parked her ass firmly on Hliðskjalf by now.”

“What about looking for survivors?” Sif asked. “Maybe rather than going immediately to fight her-”

“I never thought I would hear you argue against plunging into a battle,” Loki murmured. Steve glanced at him, but Sif seemed to ignore the comment. 

“Land outside the city,” Thor said, moving forward to the cockpit. “From there, we can-”

“Too late,” Valkyrie said, her voice grim. “We’ve been spotted.” 

Loki lunged for Steve and knocked him to the floor just before a blast of gold light tore through the side of the ship, shearing through metal like it was paper. “Hang on!” Valkyrie shouted, and Steve grabbed on to - something, just in time as the floor went vertical. 

“Someone get to the weapons systems,” Thor said. 

“Where,” Steve started to say, but something exploded and the whole ship rocked.

“Was that the engine?” Sif asked, her voice brassy with alarm.

“We’re going down,” Valkyrie said. “Brace yourselves, I’m going to try to make a decent landing!”

Steve wished desperately for a seatbelt, but he just grabbed onto Loki with one arm and tried to brace himself. 

Valkyrie’s standards for a decent landing were...it wasn’t actually the worst one Steve had ever had. “Is everyone all right?” Steve called, once they came to a stop. 

“Yes,” Loki said.

“Just great,” Valkyrie said.

Thor didn’t answer aloud, just opened the hatch and jumped out. Steve glanced at Sif, who looked both grim and a little shell-shocked, but she just followed Thor.

Steve jumped out after her, Valkyrie just behind him. Loki came last, landing softly, his expression tight and guarded. 

They were standing in a broad courtyard in front of the palace. It was empty andeerily silent; blood was splashed on the ground but there were no bodies. The hair rose on the back of Steve’s neck. 

“Where is everyone?” Sif asked, but there was a hint in her voice that it was a question she didn’t really want answered. _They can’t all be dead,_ Steve thought, but he had a sinking feeling that maybe they could. 

Thor didn’t answer, just started toward the palace. Steve looked at Loki, who was staring at the ground with a peculiar expression on his face. 

“Well,” Valkyrie said, “I guess we’re heading in.” 

Loki shook himself. “I guess so,” he said. 

No attack came. They walked through the door without opposition; inside there was more blood on the floors and the walls. But still no bodies. Steve’s unease only grew, and he drew closer to Loki. 

“Something’s wrong here,” he said. “This feels like a trap.”

“Almost certainly,” Loki said quietly. “But we’re committed now.” 

Ahead of them, the enormous double doors that Steve remembered led to the throne room swung open. Lining either side, all the way down to the sprawling throne, were double rows of…

Loki sucked in a breath. Valkyrie swore, and Thor’s stride stuttered. Steve’s blood went cold. Armored, eyes gleaming a cold, unearthly green. Half of them were skeletal - long dead. The other half...weren’t. 

“She-” Sif choked on the words, apparently unable to say what she wanted to. Thor’s jaw clenched, but he started forward again. Ignoring the undead soldiers on either side. 

“So,” Hela said, her voice rolling out down the hall as she rose from the throne and descended, walking toward them. “You’ve come crawling back. With a motley band of...oh. I remember you.” 

Valkyrie bared her teeth. “Good,” she said. 

“The Valkyrie who got away.” Hela’s lips quirked slightly, her eyes moving on to Steve, and then to Loki. “A human. And your little brother.” She didn’t sound particularly interested. Steve kept his eyes on the unmoving guard on either side of them; they might not be attacking now, but he knew that at any moment that could change.

“This is your final chance to step down,” Thor said, his voice a rumble of thunder. “Surrender, and I will consider mercy.”

“I won’t,” Valkyrie said, but under her breath. Hela laughed. 

“This is why you lost,” she said. “This is why Asgard needs a new queen. Because you are too weak to do what needs to be done.” 

“Seems to me that you haven’t left a lot of Asgard to be queen of,” Steve said. She glanced at him. 

“The price of resistance,” she said casually. “If _you_ surrender now...maybe you can avoid paying the same.”

“That’s enough talking,” Valkyrie said. 

“I have to agree,” Hela said, and raised a hand. 

The soldiers attacked almost as one, and the five of them spun into motion. Out of the corner of his eye, Steve saw the door filling with more, pouring into the room.

His stomach sank, but Steve squared his shoulders and set to it. _You’ve had worse odds,_ he thought fiercely. _Remember Ultron?_

But the fact was that no matter how many he fought back, they didn’t stop coming, and Steve hadn’t had a decent rest in days, and even undead, Aesir were _strong_. There were too many of them, and if they weren’t particularly skilled fighters, they didn’t tire like the five of them. Steve took a few deep breaths and braced himself to start again.

Someone grabbed his shoulder and Steve spun around, stopping short when he saw Thor. “Steve,” Thor said. “Get to Loki. Tell him that Surtur’s crown is in the Vault. We’ll keep the fight here.” 

“What?” Steve said breathlessly, but Thor had already pushed him away, turning back to the fight. 

Steve spun, smashing his shield into the face of an undead soldier and scanning wildly for Loki. He found him wreathed in magic, standing for the moment breathing hard with scattered limbs of the dead at his feet. 

Steve ran to him, ducking under a sword that swung at his chest, spinning to catch the next swing on his shield. He shoved the soldier back, twisted, and rammed the shield between shoulder and neck, shearing into its bone and sinew body. 

He jerked himself free and made it the rest of the way to Loki. “Thor said,” he said quickly, “he told me to tell you - Surtur’s crown is in the Vault.” 

Loki’s eyes widened, just a hair. “Oh,” he said after a moment, and closed his eyes, just for a second. “Oh, Thor.” 

“What does it mean?” Steve asked. Loki shook his head and grabbed Steve’s arm. 

“Come with me,” he said, and Steve felt the familiar inversion of Loki’s magic.

The hall they were standing in was empty. 

“What-” Steve looked around them. “Where are we?”

“By Odin’s Vault,” Loki said, already moving, and Steve jumped to follow him. “I can’t travel directly there, but-”

“What are we doing here?” Steve asked. 

“Resurrecting a fire giant,” Loki said. “Surtur was the ruler of Muspellheim, who hungered for Asgard’s destruction - no one ever said why, I have to wonder now. Thor destroyed him, but supposedly if his crown was united with the Eternal Flame...” 

“And the crown is down here,” Steve said. “I’m guessing the Eternal Flame is, too?” 

“You guess right.” 

“And I’m here…”

“To guard my back,” Loki said. “There’s a possibility...if Hela realizes what I’m doing, she might abandon the battle with the others to come here and stop me.”

They reached a pair of double doors and Loki paused outside them, then took a deep breath and touched his hand to one. 

It didn’t respond. Loki hissed out through his teeth. 

“Of course,” he said, under his breath. “He locked me out.” Loki’s lips twisted humorlessly. “That act _would_ hold, even after…” He huffed out a breath and flexed his fingers. “Hold on, Thor.” 

Steve turned away as Loki started working, straining his ears, but he couldn’t hear the sounds of fighting above them. _Hold on,_ he thought, too, fear squeezing his chest. He couldn’t help but feel that he should be _there,_ that he wasn’t doing any good down here - couldn’t help but be afraid that Loki thought the fight was a lost cause and was just trying to save Steve’s life. 

_No,_ he told himself. _He wouldn’t. Even if Loki’s afraid, even if he didn’t want to do this--_

_He’ll see it through._

“ _Ah,_ ” Loki said, and Steve turned. The doors swung open slowly and Loki strode through. Steve walked after him, glancing back and forth at all the objects on pedestals. How many looted from conquered planets? He wondered.

Loki came to a halt in front of what looked like a massive pair of animal horns. “Surtur’s crown,” Loki said, and picked it up with what actually looked like a slight effort. “Watch the door,” he said, and started further down, skirting around a hole in the floor.

Something stirred in the shadows toward the end of the hall. Steve heard a low, rumbling growl. Loki fell still, and Steve moved forward, stepping in front of him with shield at the ready.

“Steve,” Loki said.

“Your hands are full,” Steve said. “And you need to get this done-”

His voice broke off as an enormous - bigger than a horse - black wolf, eyes bright green, prowled into the open, lips peeling back from its teeth. Muscle bunched. 

Steve spun, slamming into Loki and knocking him flat so the wolf’s leap went over their heads. The crown hit the ground and Steve rolled away from Loki and to his feet. “Go!” He shouted. “Do it - I’ll hold it off.” He could hear Loki hesitating and raised his voice. “Loki, _go!_ Thor needs you to do this!”

The wolf had already pivoted and Steve braced himself, summoning up a grin. “Hey, big fella,” he said. “Don’t suppose you’re friendly.”

The wolf’s eyes, eerily intelligent, went past Steve, toward Loki. “No you don’t,” Steve said, through gritted teeth. He took a half second to calculate the angles and threw the shield, ricocheting it off one of the plinths and into the wolf’s head before bouncing back to his hand.

It knocked it maybe two steps to the side, but at least now it was paying attention to him-

And then it turned its head and - flinched. Steve turned with it and saw Loki backing away from where he seemed to have just dropped the crown into a relatively ordinary looking flame.

The wolf, of all things, turned and bolted for the door.

“Stand back!” Loki shouted. The flame roared up, and - something started to form under the crown. A creature made of fire starting to rise out of it. 

“Loki,” Steve said, stepping toward him. 

“Surtur,” Loki said, voice dropping to a whisper that was nearly drowned out by an inhuman roar. “Lord of Muspellheim. Asgard’s doom.” His eyes were wide, seemingly rooted to the floor. 

“Loki, _move!_ ” Steve shouted, lunging toward him only to reel back from a wall of heat, and he saw Loki flinch away, his magic forming a shield that seemed to flicker-

Loki’s eyes flicked past Surtur, and then to Steve. His expression hardened with resolve. 

“No, no _no don’t you dare,_ ” Steve said, but space inverted and he was standing back in the hall. Frozen. Anger and horror churning in his stomach. _Loki._ _Loki, dammit-_

Valkyrie was down and struggling to rise. Sif was on one knee, blood dripping from a deep gash in her forehead. And Thor-

Hela had Thor pinned to the throne - literally pinned, daggers through his hands and shoved into the metal. Her hand was around his throat, and Steve could just see the cruel smile on her lips. 

(Like Loki’s, a jarring part of him realized. It looked so much like Loki’s.)

“Just like our father,” she was saying. “Too weak. Too _blind_ to see what needs to be done.”

Steve reared back and threw the shield for her head. She raised her right hand and caught it without looking, just turning her head to stare at him.

“Oh,” she said. “You again. The little moral wandering into the affairs of his betters.” She smiled, thinly. “Give me a moment and I’ll be happy to deal with you as you deserve.”

She dropped the shield. A dagger appeared in her hand and she stabbed it down. 

Thor - screamed. Like Steve had never heard him. Sif lurched to her feet with an anguished cry, and god, _god,_ there was screaming in Steve’s head, trying not to think about Loki.

“Sister,” Loki rasped. Steve spun, staring at him. His armor was visibly smouldering, a blistering burn on his bare shoulder, skin seared dark red. 

Hela turned, and Steve realized that Thor was still alive. The knife was - he felt sick. Sticking out of one of his eyes. 

“Here to try your little magic against me again?” 

“No,” Loki said. “I thought I’d do you the courtesy of telling you that I’ve unleashed Surtur.” He smiled, thin and nasty. “Long live Asgard’s queen.” 

Steve felt the ground rumble under his feet. Hela jerked away from Thor, her expression twisting in rage. “You _what?_ ”

Thor moved. He ripped his hands free, raised his hand to the knife in his eye, and threw it aside. 

“You heard my brother,” he said. “Goodbye, sister.”

He raised a hand like he was about to summon Mjolnir, and lightning exploded out of him. Crackling over his skin, in his remaining eye - flinging Hela back just as the floor buckled behind him, massive horns breaking through.

Loki’s expression cracked. “We need to go!” He shouted. “Get out of here now, forget Hela. Steve, get Valkyrie-”

Thor was already pulling Sif off the ground. He threw Steve’s shield back to him, blood streaming down his face - but he didn’t look like he was in pain anymore. 

He just looked like he was going to destroy something, and when his eyes went down the hall to where Hela was rising, it was clear who it was. 

“You did this,” he growled, and Steve could feel the hair on his arms standing on end. He couldn’t remember Thor doing this before. Not without Mjolnir, not so - terrifyingly elemental. “You claim to represent Asgard, but you tore her to shreds-”

“I would restore her former glory,” Hela hissed. “And you, _you_ give free rein to her destroyer!”

A sword appeared in her hand and she threw it at Thor’s chest. Loki flung out a hand and it hit a green barrier, clattering harmlessly to the ground, but Steve saw him stagger. 

He was running dry. 

“Thor!” Steve shouted. “Let it go - we need to get out of the palace before the whole thing comes down!”

Hela flicked her wrist, another sword in hand. “You’ll have to go through me.”

Thor smiled, and it was every bit as savage as any of Loki’s. “Gladly.”

“If he kills her without me,” Valkyrie said, sounding vaguely concussed but already rousing, pulling away from Steve. “I’m gonna be _pissed._ ” 

Just before a concussive wave of hot air sent all of them flying. 

Steve pried himself off the ground with a groan and staggered to his feet, shaking his head to clear it. He saw Loki maybe ten feet away, immobile, and his heart dropped into his boots, but even as he ran over Loki rolled to his side and pushed himself up to hands and knees, if with visible effort. 

“Steve,” Loki said, looking him over quickly. “Are you all right?” 

“Fine,” Steve said, though he was pretty sure some of that was the adrenaline. Looking around, he could see Valkyrie staggering to her feet, and Thor pulling Sif up. 

“We need to get out of here,” Loki said. He swayed, catching himself on Steve’s shoulder; Steve followed the direction of his gaze and saw Surtur still growing. “Thor-”

“No!” Thor said. “Hela-” 

Steve looked around but couldn’t see her. “Is doomed,” Loki said. “As is Asgard. As are we, if we don’t go _now._ ” 

“How?” Valkyrie demanded. She looked steadier on her feet, now. “Our ship was totaled-”

“There’s no _time,_ ” Loki said, his voice frantic, and Steve felt the air charge with his magic.

The teleportation felt different. Like it - stuttered, almost, like for a second they almost didn’t finish that strange inversion. The Bifrost rang under their feet when they landed, and Loki’s knees buckled. Steve grabbed for him, but he caught himself. His face was white as a sheet, though. 

“Why are we here?” Valkyrie demanded. 

“It’s as far as I could get us,” Loki said. 

“Look,” Sif said faintly. “Look. Oh, Norns…”

The city was burning. All the beautiful, golden, gleaming buildings melting into an all-consuming conflagration that was only growing, expanding ever outward. Steve stared at the fire spreading toward them and swallowed hard. He reached for Loki’s hand and squeezed. 

The look on Thor’s face...a mixture of rage, and sorrow, and resignation.

“Now what?” Valkyrie snapped at Loki. “Brilliant plan! There’s nowhere to go!”

“Jane’s Bifrost,” Steve started to say, but Loki shook his head. 

“If we use it now,” he said, “there’s a chance we could bring some of this destruction with us. And Surtur’s fire doesn’t stop burning.” He swallowed, and added more quietly, “and besides...it still needs my magic to work, and I don’t have the strength.”

“So we’re trapped,” Thor said. 

“Then we go down fighting,” Sif said, though she didn’t look like she had much fight left in her. 

“No,” Loki said quietly. “No, we don’t.”

All four of them turned to stare at him, and Loki half smiled, mirthless. “Trust me,” he said, and pulled Steve in, dragging them both off over the edge.

Steve’s scream was torn away by the howling in his ears. He squeezed his eyes closed and clung to Loki, hoping, _praying_ that he knew what he was doing, and what about the others, what about Thor-

The forces all around him trying to pull him apart were too much. Consciousness winked out.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are at the end of another wild ride. For me, and also possibly for you? Definitely for me. 
> 
> This verse has now officially crossed the 700k line. I've been working on it for almost six years now (SIX YEARS) and it exists and continues to exist in large part because of the amazing response I've gotten from people over the years: the kind words, the questions, the prompts, the requests for more, the interest in my continued deep dive into this ever-growing AU without any sign of surfacing. Your support has meant everything to me. 
> 
> The first of two follow-ups to this fic will be posted on Friday; the other maybe a week after that (depending on how edits go). I have at least one more full fic planned for the immediate aftermath, and probably several more will develop - this fic has left a lot of aftermath to be dealt with, and turned over a lot of new stones. I also have a fic I'm hoping to be able to post for the sixth anniversary of this series (by which time _Infinity War_ will be out - gulp.). 
> 
> That's all looking ahead, though. Sticking to the present: enjoy.
> 
> Oh, yeah, and: if you like what I do, you can find me on [Tumblr](http://veliseraptor.tumblr.com), and support your friendly neighborhood fic writer on [Kofi.](https://ko-fi.com/veliseraptor)

Steve came around with a gasp, starting upward only to be pushed firmly back down. “You are safe,” said a vaguely familiar voice. “But you shouldn’t try to rise too quickly.”

He blinked a couple times, trying to get his surroundings to clear. His whole body ached, but he was clearly alive. _Alive._ He’d been falling, with Loki-

“Loki,” he burst out. “Is he - and Thor, Sif-”

“All here,” said that same familiar voice, and Steve finally turned his head (though his neck protested). Frigga gave him a tired smile. “All well, more or less.” 

“Frigga,” Steve said. “You’re alive?” 

“I am, yes.” She pushed herself to her feet. “Heimdall and I managed to slip away with all we could gather.” Her expression tightened, then smoothed. She looked older, worn by exhaustion and sorrow. Steve cleared his throat. 

“Your Majesty, your husband…”

“I know,” Frigga said. “I knew the moment it happened.” She paused. “If you will excuse me...I need to go. There is still much that needs attending to, and I need to check on my other son. But I am glad you’ve woken.” 

“Loki,” Steve said. “Can I see him?”

“Of course,” she said, standing so Steve could see past her to another bed and Loki’s face, his eyes closed. “Though it’s still better if you don’t stand. Or at least don’t stay standing. Your injuries may have been relatively minor, but you were injured nonetheless.” 

Loki looked pale to Steve’s eye. “Is he all right? Has he woken up yet?” 

“Not yet,” Frigga said, but she didn’t seem alarmed. “And may not for a little while yet. He overexerted himself fairly badly. Between that and the burns...recovery will take some time.”

 _Our friends are waiting for us,_ Steve thought, but he made himself nod. “Thank you,” he said. He paused, and said, “can I...ask? How did you get out?” 

Frigga smiled faintly. “Loki isn’t the only one with tricks up his sleeve. There was a time when Asgard did not travel only by Bifrost, its battles not solely on the ground.”

 _A time,_ Steve thought. She must mean...before Hela had been locked away. 

“Most of the ships were decommissioned,” she said. “But some remained. I stole one, and Heimdall gathered all who...could be found.” 

“I’m sorry,” Steve said. 

“As long as some of her people survive,” Frigga said quietly, “it can be said that Asgard still stands.”

Steve looked down. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “I guess so.”

Frigga regarded him a moment longer before leaving, and Steve looked back at Loki. He looked worryingly limp and almost sick. _Overexerted himself,_ Frigga had said, and Steve wanted to sigh. He supposed he couldn’t really expect anything else. It had been a very long…

He wasn’t even sure _how_ long it had been. That thought would have alarmed him, but he was still too bone-deep tired to really feel it.

He pushed himself up to sitting and got up, stumbling over and crashing into the chair next to Loki’s cot. He felt a little too warm when Steve put a hand against his cheek, but he could hear Loki’s breathing, slow and clear. 

Steve dropped his head forward, feeling almost sick with the sudden wave of relief. They were safe. They were all _safe,_ they’d gotten out alive, and - mostly in one piece, though he thought of the bloody pit of Thor’s eye with a clench of his stomach. But they’d made it through. 

He heard a sharp intake of breath and lifted his head quickly to see Loki’s eyelids fluttering. He leaned forward, well aware of how quickly - and how unpleasantly - Loki could wake up. “Loki,” he said, keeping his voice low and quiet. “It’s me. Everything’s all right.”

“Mmmnn?” Loki said, plainly struggling to wake up. “Steve?”

“S’me,” he said, trying to smile even though he doubted Loki could see it. “Take it easy. You’re still pretty beat up.”

Loki opened one eye and looked at Steve, plainly checking him over for damage. “Thor?” He asked. 

“He’s all right too,” Steve said. “I haven’t...seen him yet. But your mom said so.” He paused. “Did you...know she was here, when you jumped off the Bifrost? That there was a ship here?”

Loki licked his lips. “I was...fairly certain.”

“Fairly…” Steve let out a shaky laugh. “Hell of a stunt you pulled for ‘fairly certain,’” he said, but not scoldingly. 

“Not a lot of options.” Loki closed his eye and then opened them both with what looked like difficulty. “It’s over. Surtur...Asgard is gone.” 

“Yeah,” Steve said after a moment. “It’s over.” He hadn’t seen what was left of the place, sure, but...having seen what he had standing on the bridge, he didn’t think there would be anything to see.

“Oh,” Loki said. He sounded tired more than relieved. Exhausted.

“Frigga said you overextended yourself,” Steve said. “She didn’t seem to think you’d be waking up anytime soon.” 

“I always was precocious,” Loki said blurrily, and started to push himself up only to drop back with a faint groan. Steve sighed, though he supposed he couldn’t talk - even just sitting up was starting to make him feel dizzy. He leaned forward to rest his head on Loki’s shoulder, though the position was awkward and not quite comfortable. He wished there was room to lie down next to him. 

“So,” he said after a while. “I guess we won.”

Loki made a humorless sort of coughing noise. “It feels like a bit of a pyrrhic victory, doesn’t it? How much was lost? How many dead? This ship cannot be large, and it holds all that is left of Asgard.” 

Steve’s chest ached. He wondered how many people had made it out. Surely...maybe there were other ships. Other groups of refugees that had managed to get away. 

Was there something else they could have done? Some way they could have arrived earlier, or…

No, Steve thought. There was no point in going down that road. It was easy to, but there wasn’t anywhere to go. All they could do now was...try to deal with what was left. 

“How do you feel?” Steve asked. “You...got burned pretty bad.” 

“Nothing that won’t mend,” Loki said, which wasn’t exactly the response Steve would like, but Loki sighed and added, “mostly I am...tired. When we get home I am going to sleep for a week.”

“Sounds good,” Steve said honestly, and couldn’t help but notice that _home._ It made his chest ache, but not in a bad way. 

“With you,” Loki added after a moment. His lips curved very slightly. “That is a prerequisite.” 

Steve smiled faintly, but it faded away. He hoped everyone was fine. God, let them be fine. He didn’t think he could take it if by leaving he’d failed them too. “Yeah,” he managed to say. “Works for me.” 

“You are awake,” he heard, and straightened up, turning toward the doorway. He started a little again on seeing Thor, though his missing eye was now covered. He still looked exhausted, and bruised, but he was still smiling. “It’s...good to see you both.” 

“Thor,” Loki said. “You look...lopsided.” Thor raised a hand self-consciously to his eyepatch. Loki half smiled. “It is very dramatic. Jane will love it.”

“I’m sorry,” Steve said.

“An eye is nothing,” Thor said. “Not against...everything else.” He glanced aside. “It’s foolish, isn’t it? But I almost wish we could have saved her.” 

“You’re right,” Loki said. “It is foolish.”

“It’s understandable,” Steve said quietly. Thor gave him a grateful look. 

“She was our sister.” 

“You realize this makes you the outlier, don’t you?” Loki murmured. “The only one who isn’t a family disgrace.”

“We _were_ all exiled by Odin at one point or another,” Thor said. Loki was quiet for a moment, and then huffed. 

“True.” 

Thor turned toward Steve. “Steve...I can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done. All your help. You came across the universe to find me.” 

“Hey,” Steve said, with a weak smile, “it’s no more than you would’ve done for me. And it was all I could do to keep the others from coming with.” 

“The others,” Thor said. “They’re...everyone is well?” Steve hesitated, just a second, and a frown appeared between Thor’s eyebrows. “I take it...not.” 

“No,” Steve said. “Everyone’s...everyone’s fine. Some stuff has happened while you were gone, that’s all.” He was relieved that Loki didn’t say anything, though he supposed maybe Loki would rather Thor didn’t know a lot of things. About Njörd and Amora, mostly.

Now seemed like the wrong time to break the news about their engagement. 

Thor was still looking at him, eye narrowed. “Thor,” Loki said quietly, “not now. All right?”

Thor sighed, but he nodded. “Not now,” he allowed. “Later...you’ll tell me everything.” It was less a question than a statement, and Steve almost wanted to wince. But he nodded. It wasn’t like...he wasn’t going to keep secrets from Thor. 

“Sif,” Loki said after a pause. “Valkyrie...they both made it?”

“Yes,” Thor said, after a beat. “They survived.” 

Steve bit the inside of his cheek. “Who didn’t?” He asked quietly. Thor’s expression tightened unhappily. 

“Fandral,” he said, at length. “Hogun and Volstagg - they saw him fall.” 

Steve remembered him. Remembered him flirting with Natasha, teasing Sif, the ridiculous story about the swan maiden. Dead. Loki looked faintly stunned, and Steve looked down. 

“May he take his place in the halls of Valhalla, where the brave never die,” Loki said finally, the words spoken with a weight that made their formula plain. “We will not mourn, for those who have died a glorious death.”

“We will not mourn,” Thor echoed, but he didn’t sound like he meant it. 

“Have you spoken with mother?” Loki asked. “About...did she know?” _About Hela,_ Steve filled in, and he sat up a little. 

Thor walked in and sat down on Steve’s bed. “Yes,” he said, finally. “She knew.” Loki’s expression flashed through a series of feelings too quickly to follow, settling on a sort of tight resignation.

“Ah,” he said. “I almost have to wonder how many more family secrets might be squirreled away somewhere. I really had hoped that maybe...” 

Thor twitched, something that wasn’t quite a flinch, but there was something angry about his expression as well. “She was not Hela’s mother,” he said. “Apparently Father’s first wife...she died. They were married later, after Hela was imprisoned. To cement the new peace.”

Loki let his head fall back. “Of course. A woman from Vanaheim, Asgard’s sister Realm, to prove her commitment to a more benevolent rule.”

Steve sat back. “What I don’t understand,” he said slowly, “is why apparently no one _else_ remembers any of this. Even if it was a long time ago...wouldn’t there be _some_ record? Even if people tried to purge it...wouldn’t something have survived, somewhere?” 

“I asked,” Thor said. His mouth twisted. “The Aether,” he said to Loki, and to Steve, “one of the Infinity Stones. Bor - Odin’s father - took it from the Dark Elves when he...destroyed them.” 

“You see,” Loki said dryly, “Asgard has always been such a peaceable neighbor.” 

Thor didn’t look at Loki, or object. “What does it do?” Steve asked. 

“It warps reality,” Loki said. “Used properly - it allows the user to...rewrite things. For instance, to write the memory of one’s prodigal daughter out of the universe.” He swore. “That…”

“Don’t,” Thor said, quiet but hard. “He’s dead, Loki.” 

Loki’s nostrils flared, but he fell silent. Steve leaned forward. 

“Why not just...kill her?” He asked. It wasn’t the kind of thing he’d normally wonder about, but he didn’t really see why someone willing to lock away his daughter for millennia while erasing all memory of her would balk at executing her. 

“Odin never liked permanently discarding things that might be useful at some point in the future,” Loki said, the bitterness in his voice painfully sharp. “The more powerful, the more true.”

“Or maybe he thought that in time she would - get better,” Thor countered. “Maybe he still - loved her. For all her faults. She was still his daughter.”

Steve saw Loki flinch, his throat bobbing when he swallowed. “Maybe,” he said, after a long pause. Steve reached out to hold his wrist and squeeze. 

“Thank you,” Thor said abruptly. Steve looked at him in surprise. 

“For what?” 

“For joining me,” Thor said. “For coming with me to Asgard, and believing me that it needed to be done. I know...Loki, you did not want to go, and Steve, you had no reason to.”

“It’s your home,” Steve protested. 

“It isn’t yours,” Thor said. “That you were willing to risk your life saving it…and that _you_ were, Loki, despite your misgivings.” 

Loki looked away. “I risked my life destroying it,” he said with some irony. Thor shook his head and gestured at the ship around them.

“It’s still here, isn’t it?” He said, smiling weakly. “And I am grateful as well for the simple fact that you trusted me.”

“You let me lead you off the Bifrost into the Void,” Loki said. “I think we can say you returned the favor.”

Thor dropped his head and shook it. “Will you never learn to accept a little gratitude?” 

“I’ve wondered the same thing,” Steve said. Loki scowled and shot a look at him.

“As though you can talk.”

“Accept it or not,” Thor said firmly, “I _am_ grateful. Whatever the outcome was...that remains.”

* * *

Steve waited until Loki fell asleep, and then waited a little longer to make sure it was peaceful, before getting out of bed and going to look for Thor. He felt stiff and shaky, but he needed to talk to him and he didn’t want to do it with Loki there.

It’d be harder to say some of the things he needed to, when he knew how Loki saw them. 

He asked one of the Aesir for directions to Thor’s room, and was relieved that he knew - and guided him personally, watching him with uncomfortable awe. “Thank you,” Steve said when they stopped, and he bowed.

“Thank _you_ ,” he said, and hurried away. Steve made a face, mostly to himself, and knocked. 

Thor answered quickly. He looked tired, lines of strain around his eyes. Steve’s eyes were drawn to the eyepatch, though he tried not to stare. 

“Steve,” Thor said with a small smile. “Come in. Are you - I didn’t expect to see you on your feet.” 

“I’m fine,” Steve said firmly. “Just a little tired. Looks like you are too.” Thor didn’t deny it, and Steve stepped into the room. It was small and relatively unremarkable. He turned to face Thor and gestured at the eyepatch. “Does it still hurt?”

“Not badly,” Thor said. “Mother healed the wound. Mostly it is…” He touched his fingers lightly to it. “Strange.” 

“Are you going to grow your hair back out?” Steve asked, and then felt a little silly for asking. Thor ran a hand over his scalp. 

“Not yet,” he said. “For mourning, we cut a lock of hair for the dead. Not this much, usually, but then the losses are...greater than most.”

Steve bowed his head. “I know,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

“Mother says I should mourn our losses a little less and be grateful for our victories a little bit more,” Thor said, “but I confess this feels nothing like a victory.”

“I know,” Steve said again. 

Thor seemed to shake himself. “By the look on your face...you have burdens to share of your own, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Steve said. “I do. But if...it can wait. If it needs to.” 

Thor shook his head. “I will only wonder. And worry about what it is that troubles you.”

Steve supposed he could understand that. He sat down at the small desk, staring at his hands. “Before we go back…there are things you should know.” 

Thor came over and sat down across from him on the bed, lone eye focused, serious. “Are these things to do with the ‘some stuff’ that you referred to having happened while I was...away?” 

“Yes,” Steve said. He rubbed his mouth. “I figure…well. You should be...ready.”

“Ready,” Thor echoed, starting to frown. “Steve, you are beginning to make me truly nervous.” 

Steve took a deep breath. How should he even _start?_ Maybe with the...probably the most significant thing. “The Avengers...don’t exist anymore.”

Thor’s eye widened. “What? You said-”

“Everyone’s still alive,” Steve said. “But we’ve - well, some of us - been outlawed. And...people know about Loki, now. Well, that he’s on Earth, and that we knew about it. Not more than that.”

Thor just sat there, staring at him. “Why were you _outlawed?_ ”

“That’s...a whole other conversation,” Steve said wearily. “Government control of superheroes. And they wanted Bucky locked up. And Loki.” He didn’t say _and probably dead,_ but by the suddenly tight and stormy expression Thor could put it together. 

“If this is where you’re starting,” Thor said after a moment, “I am not certain I want to hear the rest.” Steve stared at his hands and was quiet. “Tell me,” Thor said, firm but not harsh. 

Steve stared out the window and told him. About Thanos possessing Loki and what Vision had done to stop it. About Njörd and Amora, and then he was talking about Peggy’s death, the whole miserable Sokovia Accords affair, everything, and Thor just listened in silence and didn’t interrupt. 

When he finally stopped, Thor stood up and walked away. Steve looked up, waiting for recrimination, anger that Steve hadn’t done better - because that was what it felt like, when he laid it out. A litany of failures, and not just at keeping Loki safe. Though definitely that too. 

“Norns,” Thor said quietly, at length. “I am...you’ve brought me a great deal of ill news, Steve.”

Steve looked down. “I know.”

Thor huffed something that wasn’t really a laugh. “I don’t suppose you have any good, do you?”

“Actually,” Steve said, pulling on a weak half smile. “Loki and I got engaged.”

Thor’s head swiveled around. “You - what?” 

“Yeah,” Steve said, suddenly feeling almost nervous. “We...I decided that it was time to stop stalling. So I asked, and Loki said yes, and...we’ve been waiting to do anything more formal until you got back.” 

Thor was staring at him, eyes wide, and Steve shifted a little uncomfortably, but then Thor’s face cracked into a smile and he crossed the distance between them in two strides, hauling Steve to his feet before he could stand on his own and embracing him. 

“Steve,” he said, “Norns, that - that _is_ good news.” He laughed, a little helplessly. “It almost makes up for the rest. The ring - I noticed the ring, but I didn’t think anything of it. Tell me everything.” Before Steve could manage to answer, Thor pulled back, his hands on Steve’s shoulders. “No, later. You realize - this means you are my brother, now.”

“I guess it does,” Steve said. Thor’s smile turned a little crooked.

“In light of recent events, I almost feel I should apologize for that.”

“Don’t,” Steve said quickly. “I’ve got _you_ out of the bargain, right? That’s good enough for me.”

Thor’s smile turned a little more true, and his hands squeezed on Steve’s shoulders. “I am very glad you waited for me,” he said. “If you had not, I would have had to - object most strenuously.” 

“Yeah,” Steve said. “We figured you probably would.”

Thor huffed a quiet laugh, dropping his head forward, but as Steve looked at him his smile faded. 

“The rest, though...you and Tony at odds. And that he put Loki at risk - but we must be united. The universe quakes. I fear Hela’s release foretells worse.” 

“Thanos,” Steve said. 

Thor nodded. “Asgard is...hopelessly weakened. Svartalfheim’s people are dead or scattered. Jotunheim is but a shadow of itself.” He sighed. “And yet to put aside that he acted in such a way as to put my brother in danger...is difficult.”

Steve’s smile felt forced. “It says good things about you that you can even think about it,” he said. “I’m still...well. I’m not feeling very charitable.”

“I wasn’t there,” Thor said after a moment. “It’s easier, maybe.” His lips pressed together. “It is harder for me to...Njörd’s attack. And Amora, what she did to Loki, to _you-_ ”

Steve remembered what Loki had said about what had caused his final break with Amora. _I never forgave her for trying to rape my brother._ “She’s gone,” he said. “Dead. Wanda killed her.” 

“Good,” Thor said, short and savage.

Steve paused. “You’re right,” he said quietly. “About...what’s coming. That it’s coming, maybe sooner than any of us wanted to think. Njörd knew about the Infinity Stones - or thought he knew, and was trying to gather them. For himself,” he added quickly, “but it means word is spreading. And Amora…” He took a deep breath. “She wanted Loki because of Thanos. Because she apparently thought she could gain his favor if she gave him Loki.” 

Thor closed his eyes. “And Thanos himself reached Loki, and tried to use him to claim the Mind Stone.” He lowered his head. “I have missed too much.” 

“It’s not your fault,” Steve said. 

“No,” Thor said, “but that does not actually make me feel any better about it.” He glanced aside. “I will...have to speak to Loki about this.” He sounded a little like he dreaded the prospect. Steve could imagine why. 

“He’s grown, Thor,” he said. “I don’t know if you can see it, but…”

“I can see it.” 

Steve studied Thor’s face. Not just the eyepatch, but the new seriousness to his expression, the gravity of his presence. “So have you,” he said. Thor smiled faintly. 

“I only pray it will be enough.” 

* * *

Steve wandered a bit on his way back to the healing room and wound up turning a corner to see Sif and Valkyrie nose to nose, Valkyrie looking up the few inches at Sif and Sif looking down at her, though for all she was taller, she looked a little stunned. 

Valkyrie’s smile was quick and smug. “I told you you were cute,” she said. 

Sif opened her mouth, then closed it, a faint flush spreading across her face. Steve took a quick step back, suddenly embarrassed. 

“Are you going to take back all that shit you said about me being a - ‘traitorous wretch’?” Valkyrie asked. Sif stiffened and Valkyrie leaned toward her. “I’m just saying. I think I could probably figure out a way to change your mind.”

Steve turned quickly, and Sif must have heard him because she said, a little too loudly, “Captain Rogers! You’re back on your feet?” 

He turned, finding a weak, awkward smile. “More or less. I was just looking for Thor.”

“Did you find him? Maybe I-” Sif sounded hopelessly flustered.

“No, I did, we talked. I was just looking for my way back and got a little turned around.” 

Valkyrie still looked pleased with herself. “It’s that way,” she said, pointing. “To the left.”

“Thanks,” Steve said. He was pretty sure he was a little red, too. “I’ll just…” He gestured behind him and turned quickly to walk away. 

He’d only just turned the corner when Valkyrie caught up to him. “Hey,” she said, catching his arm. “Since it’s your planet, I thought I should mention that I’m coming back to - Midgard, Earth, whatever - with you.” 

Steve turned toward her, surprised. “You are?” He’d assumed, especially after what he’d just seen, that she’d want to stay. Her expression was almost defiant. 

“Yes,” she said, her voice hard and clear. “I’ve never been. Sounds like fun to visit.” 

Steve hesitated, not wanting to say what he was thinking. _Don’t you think they need you here?_

_Are you just running off again?_

“What,” she said, her voice suddenly harsh, “are you going to tell me I should stay here? That Asgard needs me? What Asgard needs right now isn’t a fighter out of sentimental legends.”

“I don’t know,” Steve said quietly. “Maybe that’s exactly what they need.” 

She looked away. “I’m not staying.”

“All right,” Steve said after a moment. “It’s up to you.” He paused, and added with a half smile, “sure seems like Sif’d be happy if you did, though.”

Valkyrie smirked at him. “She might at that. A little tense, but that’s fixable.” She waggled her eyebrows and Steve felt his face warm. She laughed. “I can see why he likes you. Loki, I mean. It’s too bad you’re taken.” 

“Thanks,” Steve said dryly. 

“You’re welcome.” She turned. “Don’t try to leave without me.” 

“I won’t,” Steve said after her, privately wondering if she would change her mind. Even if he could understand why she wouldn’t want to stay. 

He followed her directions back to the room and let him back inside. Frigga was there, sitting next to Loki’s bed where they were staring at each other, Frigga’s expression tight and Loki’s blank. Steve stopped, feeling once again like he was interrupting. 

“I can go,” he said, when they both looked at him, though in truth he was starting to feel shaky and chilled. 

“No,” Loki said. “I think we’re done.” 

Frigga looked like she wanted to object, but after a moment she stood up and left without saying another word. Steve sat down quickly on the edge of his bed, and when Loki looked at him his expression turned to worry. 

“Where were you?” He asked. “You look pale.”

“I was just talking to Thor,” he said. “I might’ve...pushed it a little. But I’m fine.” 

Loki huffed. “‘Pushed it a little.’ Of course you did.” He dropped his head back on the bed but rolled to his side so he was facing Steve. 

“You?” He asked after a moment. Loki made a bit of a face. 

“Fine,” he said. “Tired. My burns itch and I’m sick of being stuck in this room.”

“That all sounds fine,” Steve said dryly. Loki smiled crookedly.

“It could be worse.”

“You love saying that,” Steve said, “but it’s really an unfair standard.” He paused. “Can I ask what you and Frigga were talking about?” 

Loki shook his head. “Hela. Odin. The past and the future. Nothing serious.” 

Steve wanted to ask more, but Loki’s tone suggested that now, at least, wasn’t the time. “I talked to Valkyrie,” he said. “She says she wants to come back with us. To Earth.” 

“Does she? I suppose it isn’t that surprising. I imagine she feels hopelessly out of place. A relic out of history.” He glanced sidelong at Steve. “An entirely new place might feel more comfortable.” 

Steve wondered if that was true. If he’d been able to go to another planet, instead of living on Earth with all the reminders of everything that had changed, how far he was from what he knew, the weight of what people expected him to be...would he have done it?

He didn’t know. 

“I guess.”

Loki smiled faintly. “Wanda is going to love her.” 

Steve tried to picture that, and laughed. “Yeah,” he said. “She probably will.”

“You should get some rest,” Loki said after a brief pause. “You look exhausted. And whatever you think, you’re not well yet.” 

Steve sighed, but he moved to lie down and closed his eyes, pulling the blankets over him. They weren’t very comfortable, but at least they were pretty warm.

“I love you,” he said abruptly.

“Every time you say that,” Loki said quietly, “it feels new all over again.” 

* * *

Steve slept like the dead, and when he woke up Loki wasn’t in his bed. Steve pushed himself up, instinctively alarmed, and looked around the room for him, and then felt a little stupid. It wasn’t a big room. It wasn’t like Loki’d be hiding in one of the corners. 

He pushed himself out of bed with a bit of a groan. For all his injuries were minor, the soreness and exhaustion still lingered. He pulled on his shoes, stepped out into the hallway and went looking for Loki.

He found Thor first, standing with Valkyrie (Steve still wasn’t entirely sure if that was her name or a title) and talking quietly. They both looked up when he cleared his throat. 

“Have you seen Loki?” He asked. 

“No,” Valkyrie said first. Thor cocked his head to the side.

“He’s not in the...no, of course he isn’t.” Thor shook his head a little. “He _should_ still be resting. If he isn’t...I don’t know.” 

“Brooding, probably,” Valkyrie said. Steve and Thor both looked at her, and she shrugged. “He seems like the type.”

Steve couldn’t help but feel a prickle of unease. There had been a lot of upheaval in Loki’s life in a very short time. Again. And even if she’d sounded dismissive, Valkyrie wasn’t wrong: Loki did have a tendency to get lost in his own head, and that was almost never good. 

Thor looked like he was having the same thought. “I’ll track him down,” Steve said quickly. “He probably just wanted to get out of the room and walk.”

“Probably,” Thor said. Steve gave Valkyrie a small, weak smile and went out. 

He found Loki just as he was starting to panic, sitting cross-legged in front of one of the portholes and looking out into space. His expression was hard to read, but Steve saw his shoulders tense up slightly as he approached. 

“There you are,” he said. “I was worried.”

Loki turned his head. “I got tired of looking at the same four walls, and I didn’t want to wake you.” 

_What woke you,_ Steve wanted to say, but he knew better than to ask. “Thor seemed to think you should still be resting.” 

“Thor would.” Loki grimaced. “I am fine. The burns are healing swiftly with Frigga’s intervention. The magical exhaustion will take longer, but I’m not in any danger.” 

Steve hesitated. “Will you be able to get us home without changing that?” 

“Frigga is going to take the majority of the burden,” Loki said. “Less is necessary this time, though. We’re not binding a new anchor. Just returning to one.” 

“Okay,” Steve said after a pause. “Good.” 

He waited a few moments, letting the silence hold before he asked. There was no point in beating around the bush about it. Loki was better at evading things he didn’t want to talk about than Steve tended to be at uncovering them, even if he had gotten better over the years. “What’s wrong?” 

Loki’s expression spasmed slightly. “I don’t suppose you would accept it if I said nothing was.”

“No,” Steve said. “I wouldn’t. And I’d hope you wouldn’t try.”

Loki sighed, his eyes closing. “Asgard is gone,” he said.

Steve bit the inside of his cheek. “I know,” he said. “I’m...sorry.” 

“It was lost to me long before this,” Loki said. “When I first...fell.” He paused, and corrected more quietly, “let go. And then again when Odin...when he exiled me for good. But it was still _there._ And somehow...I feel as though it shouldn’t matter.”

“Of course it does,” Steve said. “It was home. For most of your life. Even if you weren’t always happy there, even if...it still meant something to you.” 

Loki was quiet, breathing slowly. “And I destroyed it,” he said, his voice even quieter. “In the end...I was the one to set it on fire and watch it burn.”

 _Oh,_ Steve thought. Something twisted painfully in his chest. “You had to,” he said. 

“I know.” Loki bowed his head. “But there is a part of me that thinks of - the times that I wished Asgard would fall. Where I was...when I wanted it to suffer. And now it’s gone, so many of its people dead, and I...I finished the job.” He stuttered a humorless laugh. “Be careful what you wish for, I suppose. The Norns must have heard.”

Steve shifted a little closer to Loki and put an arm around him, pulling him into his side. “There wasn’t another way.”

“But what if there was?” 

Steve knew that game too well. The _what if_ game, if you’d done something differently, tried harder, fought harder, thought harder. It was irresistible, and it never went anywhere. “If it were me,” he said, after a long pause, “what would you say? If I were in your position, what would you tell me?” 

Loki sighed. “You aren’t.”

“It’s a hypothetical,” Steve insisted. “Just go with it.”

Loki closed his eyes. “I would tell you that if there had been another way you would have found it. But that is just it. What if I didn’t try? What if, deep down, this is what I wanted all along?”

“It wasn’t,” Steve said, with certainty. “It isn’t. That you’re feeling this way - that you’re asking these questions - makes that clear enough.”

Loki sighed, and after a moment he leaned sideways, resting his head on Steve’s shoulder. “Perhaps so,” he said, sounding tired, and not entirely convinced. It was probably the best that Steve was going to get.

“Do you want to…” Steve trailed off, wondering if he should even try. _Coward,_ he scolded himself, and said, “do you want to talk about...the rest?” 

“The rest?” Loki said, a little too puzzled, and Steve just waited. Loki sighed, bowing his head. “You mean...what do you mean, exactly? The fact that I had a sister I didn’t know about? That I wasn’t the first child Odin locked away for not fitting with his expectations? That Frigga knew, and said nothing? That Odin-”

He cut off, abruptly, and Steve saw him swallow hard. 

“That he’s dead,” Loki said finally, quietly. 

Steve stayed quiet, waiting. He didn’t really think there was anything he could say. 

“He is dead,” Loki repeated, like he needed to say the words again. “And I am - I do not know what to feel. I am angry. I hate him. Hated him. And yet now that he is gone-”

“It’s not that simple,” Steve said quietly. 

“I spent so much time chasing his approval,” Loki said. “And when I understood I would never have it - I thought I’d managed to let go. But then he comes and in his last moments - says what I _always_ wanted to hear, and I…” Loki tilted his head back, his eyes closed. “Everything slipped away and I was a child again, desperately seeking his love always out of reach.” 

Steve’s chest ached. “That’s not surprising,” he said.

“It’s _pathetic._ ” Loki’s voice shook slightly. 

“No,” Steve said firmly. “It’s not. Whether - whatever happened, he was your father.” Loki twitched, and Steve shook his head. “I don’t mean - even if later that changed, even if you broke with him, even though he failed you, for most of your life, he was.”

Loki’s shoulders slumped. “Everything he did,” he said, and stopped. “I wonder if he saw Hela in me. Her reflection. If that was why he held himself away from me.” His lips spasmed. “I can see myself in her, after a fashion.”

“I can’t,” Steve said honestly. 

Loki looked at him sidelong. “No?” 

“No,” Steve said. “I don’t see it at all. You’ve never been anyone but yourself. Even at your worst, that was still true.”

“Is that better?” 

“Yes,” Steve said, “because in the end you did choose to change. You wanted to, and you did it. Hela didn’t.”

“Would she have, if she’d had the chance?” Loki asked, but then shook his head. “Don’t mistake me. I don’t...regret it. But I feel I have to wonder.”

Steve looked out through the porthole at the stars. “I think that’s a good thing,” he said. “That’s compassion.”

Loki’s lips quirked very slightly. “I suppose so,” he said at length. “But I must say it is a little tiresome.” 

“Tiresome,” Steve echoed, and had to laugh. “I guess that’s one way of putting it.”

Loki’s lips twitched a little, though when he turned his head to look at Steve his eyes were still melancholy. “Thank you,” he said. Steve shrugged a little, embarrassed. 

“I don’t know that I did that much,” he said, “but you’re welcome.” He paused. “Has Thor talked to you?”

Loki’s faint smile faded. “Oh yes,” he said. “At length. He was...not happy.” He gave Steve a sidelong look. “You gave him rather a lot to deal with at once.” 

“He needed to know,” Steve said, though he couldn’t help but feel a little sheepish. “Was he upset with _you?_ ”

“Not exactly,” Loki said. “Just generally upset.” He glanced at Steve sideways. “Though he did just about break my ribs over our...impending nuptials. He’s very proud, apparently.” Steve couldn’t help but smile. 

“I’m glad,” Steve said. “I was worried he’d think I wasn’t worthy of you.”

Loki’s head whipped around. “You’re joking,” he said, sounding incredulous. Steve gave him a bit of a smile.

“I don’t know,” he said lightly. “Thor thinks very highly of you.” Loki opened his mouth and then closed it, and shook his head with a huff. 

“Are you trying to prove something?” 

“I don’t know why you’d think that.”

Loki shook his head, half smiling, though it still faded quickly. “I think...it’s time to go home, isn’t it? I’m ready. Though I don’t know that Thor is.” He turned his head forward again. “His heart may always be torn between Asgard and Midgard. I hope he never has to choose.”

Steve felt a pang. “So do I.” He exhaled. “At least...we know Asgard’s people are in good hands.” 

“Yes,” Loki said, after a brief pause. “Whatever I think of...Frigga’s choices, she will guide Asgard well while we guard Midgard.” 

“You’re angry at her about this,” Steve said. 

“I am. It is...she is complicit in this thing; it is another secret she kept for him, another thing she covered over. It casts a shadow on what I believed of her. Who I believed she was. That cannot help but taste bitter.” 

Steve opened his mouth and closed it. He thought Loki had probably had enough of being told that he had to forgive. And when he thought of what Thor had said about Asgard’s history...secrecy was poison. It’d certainly poisoned Thor’s family. 

And he wondered what difference it might have made if Loki had known that war wasn’t glory and that Asgard wasn’t perfect.

“I’ll talk to Thor,” Steve said. “Tell him...it’s time to go. We’ve been gone long enough.”

“Yes,” Loki said. “We have.” He smiled, very faintly. “We can only hope that James has not keeled over from the stress of fretting over you as much as he doubtless has.”

Steve rubbed the back of his neck, almost embarrassed. “We can only hope.”

* * *

The gathering on the bridge was subdued. To Steve’s eye Loki still looked pale and a little wobbly, but he insisted he was ready to leave, and Steve itched to go home, too. Thor was speaking quietly with Frigga, and after a moment embraced her; Loki looked away. 

“Are you certain?” Thor asked quietly. She nodded. 

“If Thanos comes to Midgard - and it seems likely he will - then you need to be there.” She smiled faintly. “Trust me, my son. I have been queen of Asgard for millennia.”

Thor half smiled. “If you should need me…”

“Then I will call.” Frigga turned and looked at Steve and Loki. She took a step forward, and then paused. “Loki,” she said quietly, and he turned to look at her for a long moment. Steve almost held his breath, but after several seconds he walked stiffly to her and gave her a quick embrace. 

“Go well,” Frigga said, fingers brushing his cheek, and to Steve, “you have Asgard’s eternal gratitude. And mine.” 

Steve nodded. “Thank you.” 

Valkyrie stepped up next to them, a pack slung over his shoulder, though she avoided Steve’s eyes. “So,” she said. “We going?” 

Frigga held still a moment longer. Steve glanced at Sif, whose eyes were cast down. Then he felt the magic gathering around them, tingling on his skin. Loki’s fingers curled around his arm and he half smiled. 

“Doctor Foster, open the Bifrost,” he murmured under his breath, and pressed the button on the device in his hand. 

They slammed to earth, and for a moment Steve thought they were in the middle of the forest, but then he realized he could just see the building that was their sanctuary through the trees. Valkyrie was looking around, her eyes a little wide and her hand on her sword.

“It’s very...green,” she said. 

“Not everywhere is like this,” Loki said. He hummed under his breath. “A bit off on the location. I wonder why?” 

“Something to ask Jane,” Steve said. Everything looked in one piece. No smoke, no fires. Quiet except for the sound of birds starting again after a brief silence. He gave Valkyrie a small smile. “Welcome to Wakanda.” 

“I thought this was Midgard,” Valkyrie said.

“Yes,” Loki said dryly. “Humans like to split everything up into arbitrary chunks and give them all names. I think it is a species pastime.” 

Steve shook his head a little and started walking. Thor caught up to him after a few strides. 

“Who is here?” He asked.

“Sam, Clint, Bucky, Pietro, and Wanda,” Steve said. “And T’Challa, of course, though he has a country to look after, so not always. And Scott. You haven’t met him. He’ll be head over heels to meet you.” 

“Tony, Vision, and Natasha are not, then,” Thor said. 

“Yeah,” Steve said after a pause. “And Rhodey. I’m not sure where they are, at least not right now. Natasha’s off on her own. I told her...she’s welcome to come, if she wants. But I don’t know if she will.”

“And Bruce?” 

Steve shook his head again. “I don’t know that, either. Keeping his head down, I hope. Somewhere safe. Knowing his and Ross’s history…I wouldn’t blame him for keeping his distance.”

Thor sighed, and shook his head. “I don’t like this,” he said quietly. Though after a moment he huffed and added, “though I allow it might have been worse, had I been here. That this _Ross_ targeted Loki and imprisoned him...even now a part of me itches to take action.” 

“Don’t,” Steve said quickly. 

“I won’t,” Thor said. “I would like to think I am less ruled by my impulses than I was.” 

Steve heard running footsteps up ahead and tensed, but then he heard Jane’s voice: “over here! It’s close-”

She burst out of the trees almost right in front of them, and her eyes went wide with a yelp, going directly to Thor. Her face split into a smile.

“Jane,” Thor said, and if his smile was tired, it was genuine. “Thank you for bringing me home.” 

She made a small sound and then flung herself at Thor, hugging him with all her might. Only a few moments behind her were the others. Bucky made a beeline for him and punched Steve in the shoulder, not gently. 

“Three weeks,” he said. “Three fucking _weeks-_ ”

“Time dilation,” Loki said, sounding a little apologetic. “It isn’t _his_ fault.” 

“I’d punch you too if I thought it’d do a damn thing,” Bucky said, sounding peevish, but Steve could hear the relief in his voice. 

“Hello,” Wanda said, her voice clear. “Who are you?”

Steve turned to see Valkyrie hanging back, her expression if not tight maybe shading toward bitter. Wanda had approached her, though, her face warm and open, holding out a hand. Valkyrie stared at it for a moment, then took it. She opened her mouth, closed it, and shrugged. 

“Just call me Val for now,” she said. “That’s good enough.” 

“It’s good to meet you, Val,” Wanda said. “I’m Wanda.” Steve noticed Valkyrie - _Val’s_ expression changing a little, looking Wanda surreptitiously up and down, and wondered if that was going to be...something.

“Where’d you come from?” Clint asked her. “And Jesus, Thor, what happened to your hair? And your _eye?_ ”

“It is...more than a bit of a tale,” Thor said, still holding Jane. “I would rather tell it sitting down somewhere comfortable.”

“Good call,” Sam said loudly. “Y’all look like you’re about to wilt.” 

It took Steve a moment, as they started back, to realize that Loki was still standing still. He walked back to him and took his hand, giving him a gentle tug. “Hey.” 

Loki exhaled and came with him. “Thor is alive but Asgard is gone,” he said. “Hela is defeated - though I hesitate to believe she is dead. Odin is dead. I cannot tell if this is a victory or a loss.”

“Sometimes,” Steve said quietly, “It’s a little bit of both.” He found a smile. “What do you think Pietro’s going to do if Val starts flirting with his sister?” 

Loki ducked his head, laughing very briefly. “I admit I can’t wait to see it.”

“Loki?” Steve heard Thor call. “Steve?”

Loki glanced at Steve with a wry, sideways smile. “We’re coming,” he said, and leaned over to kiss the corner of his mouth. 

“I love you,” he said. “Today, and always. Whatever comes.” 

The words were soft, but something about them still sent a small chill down Steve’s spine. _No,_ he thought. _Don’t borrow trouble._

 _Just take a deep breath and the small victories as they come._


End file.
